Terminator: Timelines
by Guardian.Ghost
Summary: Skynet has learned that sending back Terminators to specific times had yielded no results. It has decided that it will continue to do but change the model it sends. John Connor realizes this with a help of a very unique Hybrid that is sent back through time, only this time there is something very, very wrong with the time lines. Rated T at the moment.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: OMG Terminator Genisys, this looks to be amazing, so this is my take and I'm running with it .**

**Disclaimers: I do not own Terminator, nor will I ever. Original Characters are mine**

**R&amp;R Please, makes me happy ^-^**

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"_The Future is not set, there is no fate but what we make of ourselves."_

* * *

_-2029-_

The grey and black landscape of the nuclear ravaged world had set humanity on the brink of extinction, had it not been for the pockets of humans that had survived the fallout and rallied together it was the beginning of the end for Skynet. However Skynet had one last ditch effort to try and change the outcome of this entire war, it would send two last Terminators to the past, it was clear that the 800 sent to 1984 had failed, and it was clear that it's resources in sending the T-1000 back to the late 90's was a mistake as well.

Sending an 800 to kill Sarah as a child and a T-1000 to 1984 as well, maybe this would help ensure its success and win this war.

"Erik, what are you thinking about?"

"General…"

"What are you thinking about?" A salt and peppered haired head turned and gazed at the scar ridden face of John Conner, the leader of Humanity or whatever was left of it. The man was standing with his arms crossed over the battle worn clothing, hair was 'gelled' back with whatever hair slick was available.

"The past, and anything that Skynet might do to change the outcome of its war, do we have access to another T-800?" John Conner moved to stand beside the man he had come to trust over the years that he had known him, Erik Destler was a strange man and neigh unaging. It had been during a raid to free prisoners from a camp that John had come across the man crouching down behind a group of children taking bullets that never put him down.

It was during this that the children clung to their protector covering his back up as best as they could with whatever rags they could shove into his shirt holes. John had stepped up and taken off his jacket and threw it on the man's shoulders.

After spending the time to personally patch up Erik, John learned that Skynet had taken humans prisoner trying to convert them into infiltrator units. Erik had fought the programming even going so far as to rip the chip out of the back of his skull. Skynet had been under the impression that the unit was destroyed but when destruction of small key building facilities started cropping up it laid a trap for its creation.

It had the human Terminator Hybrid strung up and further tested upon, the conversation was a complete endo-skeleton with a functioning digestive and reproductive system and was powered by a powerful heart that had been genetically modified to work alongside a power cell in case of emergencies, it wasn't going to let its experiment live, but the testing upon it was extremely extensive and when John raided the compound the chains binding him broke and he left with the human prisoners.

"Why would we need another 800?"

"Send a Terminator to protect her as child, if they can't get your mother as a teen, or you as a child, they will send one to kill her even earlier."

"We have one last one… I'll have him reprogrammed."

"Make sure it has the ability to raise a child and learn." John looked at the hybrid questioningly before calling out the open door to his office to one of his soldiers. After John had given his orders he went and stood beside Erik and looked at the scar running down the right side of his face, it was old, very old and when the man turned his head, human looking blue eyes stared back at John.

"Send me back to help your 'Uncle Bob', if Skynet is going to change the way it fights you will need another person there to protect you from whatever else it sends into the past with the T-1000. You and I know that the Unit sacrificed a lot for you as a child. I have nothing holding me to this world anymore and I can no longer 'age', I can't commit suicide, this machine will endure. Let me make myself useful." Erik watched John gaze at him with thought before looking down and nodding.

"We'll send you back, and we'll make sure that the Unit knows you are coming along, but we'll hide that information from 'them' in the past. Your location drop, I'll talk to the techs and make sure you are dropped elsewhere and maybe earlier in time before I saw the Terminator and the T-1000 at the mall."

"That's fine, you're the boss. I miss my life and what it used to be. With this body, I might be able to do more in life again than when I did when I first grew up in the nineties." Erik and John grinned at each other remembering the past when one of John's soldiers came in and stared with a wide open mouth.

"Close your mouth son, what do you have for me?"

"The facility is preparing for an attack, Skynet is moving forces on the time displacement equipment, something big is going to happen."

"Get our forces and the Terminators ready to go, we won't have much time to send him back, along with Erik. He'll be taking care of us in the past." Erik stepped up beside John as the soldier standing there looked between the half-man/half-machine before nodding and turning to give orders out to the rest of the people.

"Get yourself ready Erik, you'll be coming with me and Kyle. Let's change the world." Erik nodded before leaving the room going to his small cubbyhole room. This would be the last time that he would be in this world, he would do whatever it would take to make sure that Skynet would never be able to do what they did to him or anyone else. There had once been an experiment done by Skynet that resulted in the creation of a Terminator that had been once named Marcus Wright.

The Terminator, no one knows what became of it but it was said to have been a failure and destroyed. Erik was one of the last in an attempt to make a machine-human by Skynet before it switched tactics. As Erik stood and changed clothing into was the last of the cleanest repaired and reinforced combats he sighed. He was every bit as a man as he was a machine and it bothered him that he wouldn't age as fast or age at all due to what Skynet had done to him.

Strapping on what would be useless armour to his chest, his legs and his arms, Erik grabbed the rifle that the Resistance had picked up and tried to replicate down to 'human' size but never could. Checking the charge on the rifle Erik walked out of the room and was met by other Tech Com soldiers looking at him, some of them were people he had personally saved during a few raids and others afraid of him or angry because here was a machine that could turn on them not realizing that inside the machine was a brain albeit with a small hard drive that allowed his brain to control his body and his body functions.

Ignoring them a small child ran up to him and hugged his legs forcing him to look down, it was a small little girl that he had carried out of a wreckage of a wall.

* * *

_The girl's mother was killed by a machine and Erik ended up seeing a machine bearing down on her and he attacked the machine throwing it through a wall before seeing the other wall starting to fall, he jumped into the way and brought the girl close into his large frame covering her as the wall fell down onto them both. After all the weight had stopped moving onto him Erik forced the hydraulics and servos in his body to move and extend shifting all the weight and debris off of them before picking up the girl and looking around. The little girl clung to Erik looking up to his face when she reached and shifted something her face wide eyed._

"_Your face… you're hurt." Erik held her with one arm and with the other he reached up and noticed that a section of his face had been ripped away from him revealing the gleaming silver of the endo-skeleton. _

"_I'll be okay little one…"_

"_No, I don't want you taken away, we have to cover your face." Erik chuckled and he walked over the rubble noting that he was torn up in a few more places. The little girl looked to his chest and saw through the ruins of the shirt he was wearing to see the beating heart that was helping to power his body._

"_Okay, okay… but we'll have to get out of here quickly, more of the machines will be coming."_

* * *

Erik knelt down and as the girl wrapped arms around his neck, chuckling he wrapped his own arms around her and lifted her up walking down the hall with her as she looked around seeing the faces and glances people where giving the pair. Looking back at Erik the girl put her hand to the side of his face that had been missing flesh a couple of months ago.

"You're all better."

"Yes I am, and it's all thanks to you. What are you doing here, aren't you supposed to be your new family?"

"I heard you were leaving, I wanted to see you." The little girl's face hid away under Erik's chin as she curled up against him. Erik's arm tightened protectively around the girl more as they continued down the halls towards the hanger where helicopters were sitting waiting for them to leave. The little girl had reached into her shirt and pulled a chain out with a very old set of dog tags. Taking the chain off she placed it over Erik's head and wrapped her arms around his neck again.

"I think these are yours… My daddy and mommy found these a long time ago, mommy gave me these and said they would protect me, you did… your name is E. Destler right?" Stopping in mid stride Erik set his rifle down leaning against a wall and reached up with his hand to take the severely dinged Canadian style dog tags and saw the name, the date of birth and all his information. How long ago he had lost these, to think that they survived after all these years and how the hell did they get down to what used to be the United States.

"Mommy said that Destler would always protect me, is that your last name?"

"Yes… yes it is, these used to be or are mine, thank you for looking after it." Erik kissed the top of her head as she giggled hugging him back.

"You're welcome, you saved me." Once in the hanger there was so much military activity that Erik had to hike the girl up more as she wrapped her legs around his waist.

"Okay, I need you to go back and stay with your family, where I am going you can't come with me." Erik went to a corner and dropped to a knee letting her down. Seeing her cry broke his heart and he knew where he was going there would be no way that he would be able to look after her. Letting her go and slinging the rifle over his shoulder Erik hugged her one last time and kissed her cheek. "Stay strong, be good, survive, I'll always try to protect you."

"I don't want you to go…"

"I have to."

Standing up Erik put a hand on her shoulder and smiled sadly to her. Hearing his name Erik turned away and walked off heading to the Helicopter where John was standing. Taking the tags and putting them under his shirt John cocked his head as Erik climbed into the machine, John's right hand man Kyle Reese was sitting in the helicopter waiting to take off as the rotors spun up.

"What did she give you?"

"Something from a distant past, something I thought I lost a very long time ago."

Looking out from his seat Erik saw the little girl cry and he smiled sadly as the helicopter took off into the air as he set his rifle across his lap, he closed his eyes and let sadness hit him as he realized he would never see the little girl again ever. He never even got her name just called her little one or some pet name that crossed his mind first, even when he was alive as a human and younger he never put any stock into possibly having children and the first time he realizes he won't be a father is when he saves a child in the middle of a godforsaken shit hole that is now the world.

A rage entered his thought as his grip on his rifle tightened and the shoulder stock of the rifle started to squeal. John looked over from his seat wondering what was going through his friend's head that made him angry or grow angry. He had seen the way that the little girl had clung to him and he told the rest of his people to leave the two of them alone. He would look after the little girl himself if it ever came down to it and he owed Erik that least. There was an alarm that set off in the cabin of the helicopter as gun fire erupted all around them as purple plasma bolts dinged the hull of the bird.

"We're entering a fire fight General Connor!"

"Set us down, set us down!"

"Roger!" John and Kyle unbuckled themselves and go to their feet, Erik because of his weight didn't even bother settling himself in and as he stood up there were reports that Endos were running up on their side. John and Kyle stepped back as a pissed off Erik stood at the door with his rifle ready to be fired as soon as the helicopter landed Erik ripped open the door and blew a hole into the head of the first Terminator that had been reaching for him, he tackled the other two to the ground and got up first grabbing the first fleshless Terminator that he could and with the rotor still spinning at a good speed he threw the machine up head first watching as the blades took the head off and breaking the body apart. The pilot was scared and yet impressed while John and Kyle jumped out as Erik engaged the last Terminator with a boot to the face followed by the barrel of his rifle in the things face before it was metaled into molten slag.

As the trio ran, ground reinforcements had shown up battering down the walls of the compound to bring in troops, as the Resistance fought the battle was not going their way, John ordered the truck with the reprogrammed Terminators and the tech to drive into the building. Ducking under a plasma bolt John saw Erik taking a knife from the dead body of a soldier and jamming it into the side of the machine's skull before pulling it out and dropping the body. Despite everything Erik looked to be at home in a battlefield and it showed in his skill, yes he was turned into a machine but his mannerisms and his control of a weapon was that of an age old soldier and one from before the fall of the bombs.

"Lets move it I don't want to be blown apart here!"

John and Kyle sprinted as Erik jammed the stolen knife into a slot into his vest and ran after the two as the doors to the time displacement equipment started to close. Once the heavy doors had fallen, the tech guys and everyone else walked alongside the truck walking it to the rigged equipment. As the truck rolled to a stop Erik heard a soft 'ow' and sniffle before the tech guys got out and looking at Erik.

The little girl had jumped into the truck and had followed Erik into a battlefield and now here, one of the men handed the girl out and set her on the ground.

"Erik!"

Sighing Erik knelt down and pulled her to him as John looked questioningly at the driver and his men, they had no idea how she had gotten on the truck and they weren't about to turn around to drop off a child. There was no choice she was here and there would be no way might possibly leave this place alive, not with all the Terminators and the HK units outside the building and they would have to fight their way out.

"Erik…"

"I'll take her with me, I know what my mission is and I don't want her to be what cost lives here." Nodding John barked orders as he gave a speech about the future, the past and what will change everything on this. He was talking about his mother Sarah and as if on cue Kyle spoke up and asked to be sent back. Nodding Kyle was prepped by the techs telling him that nothing dead could go through the field and so as he stripped down Erik was consoling the little girl as gunfire echoed down the halls from the outside.

"Hey, you know I never did get your name little one."

"Finley, my mom named me Finley."

"Well Finley, looks like you are going to be coming with me, where we are going to you will have to promise to be a good girl, you listen to what I say and do whatever I tell you to yeah?"

"Where are we going to?"

"Back into time… now I have one last question. Do you want me to be your new daddy?"

"I'd rather you be my daddy, I didn't like the other people." Erik chuckled and turned in time to see Kyle vanish into thin air, the rotation of the machines rings slowed as the two Reprogrammed Terminators were turned on and they briefed by John verbally. Looking over his shoulder John pointed to Erik as the two Terminator heads swiveled to him and their eyes flashed red, Erik's own flashed Red in response before they turned away and back to John.

One by one Erik watched as the Terminator that John was sending back to protect his mother with a reset learning chip, and the 'Uncle Bob' Terminator were sent back into time, Erik took Finley over to John who knelt down looking to the little girl who looked to be no more than five or six with all the malnutrition running rampant over the years

"That was a very dangerous thing you did, but I guess when you love someone you would do anything hmm?"

Finley nodded her head and clung to Erik's leg as Erik started removing his vest and his clothing. John looked up to the ID tags sitting on his chest and then he knew why Erik fought as he did, and if the tags really were his, he was right in allowing Erik to go back and helping to shape the future and hopefully still be kicking around in the future if there was still ever a war.

"Okay, what needs to happen Finley is that you need to take your clothes off, that machine won't let you dressed as you are. Erik will protect you and hopefully when you go back you can have a better life than the one you have here. But never forget and help him as much as you can okay?" Finley looked at John with determination and nodded, she remembered when she helped Erik when he rescued her, and she would continue to do that because he was like her daddy before a protector.

"Alright little one when you are ready we have a blanket ready to cover you with okay?" seeing the little girl nod, John stood and looked to Erik who had taken a knife cutting into his arm making a slit.

"Erik?"

"I'm not losing these things again." Taking the dog tags off Erik coiled the chain around the metal tags and slipped it into his arm with a grunt before he flexed his arm to make sure they stayed and weren't damaged. As he stood naked he saw a little bundled up Finley walking up to him. Seeing the blood on his arm Finley's eyes teared up before Erik picked her up and whispered soothingly in her ear.

John walked up to Erik and held out his hand, Erik took the other man's hand and shook it before letting go. There was a great deal of respect shared between the two and the sadness that John felt was in losing another friend, but sadness that Skynet had experimented on him and turned him in a perfect Terminator/Human hybrid. Erik could eat, he could sleep, he could have sex if he wanted to, he could piss and take a crap. He was the perfect assassin, but the fact that Erik had ripped the chip that had been implanted into him out when he rescued the little girl made him all the more human to John.

"Take care the both of you, and if you survive into the future and we see each other again… war or not. Thank you."

"No problem, it's been an honor General." Stepping up the stairs Erik pulled the blanket away as the cold air hit Finley and she curled up against Erik's warmer body. Kneeling down on the platform due to his weight Erik held Finley close and told her to close her eyes. Wrapping her arms around his neck Finley did as Erik asked. Putting a hand down on the pad and lowering his face into Finley's hair he whispered softly.

"Be brave." The rings started to spin as Erik felt electricity dance all over his body, his nerves were starting to get fired up as he held onto Finley and she started to whimper in pain. Holding her tighter he heard the machine whirr louder and louder before everything disappeared and went dark on him. When everything came back to him the first thing that Erik felt was the wind and cold. The second was the death grip that Finley had on his neck and the fact that he was somewhat struggling to breath despite his machine components making sure that his organics survived.

Opening his eyes and looking around he stood braving the cold that hit him a little harder than it should have given the fact that he was naked holding a no more than six year old girl in his arms.

"Okay, you need to let up on my neck, I know you don't feel well but I need you to let me breath okay?" The pressure let up enough that Erik could take a decent breath without the machine side of him slowing down his blood and keeping it running on the oxygen instead of the hydraulics. It was a two-side system that Erik was still trying to figure out even to this day.

Taking in his surroundings it was late 80's that Erik could see and he had appeared in a homeless sewer segment. It was clear they were in LA by the way a strip club party was playing two streets down. How was he going to get cloths for the two of them, it was the dead of night so it would be more concealing for them but it was also going to be a pain in the ass cause the last time Erik had been caught nude it was just himself and his buddies out of college after a bad night out.

Heading along the waterway Erik climbed up out of it and saw a bank with a time, it was just after 1 am, he had time. The only thing he had to do was avoid any police patrol cars and he would be good, looking down the streets Erik took a gamble and took off at a fast jog ignoring the cold of his nether regions. Because it was a semi poor part of LA there was a military surplus store, most of the surplus stores that he had come across in his time were placed in places that would be considered shady to allow for illegal gun sales. That was curbed later on in the late 90's and the 2000's from what he remembered. Going into the alley Erik looked down both ways before he went to the back door of the store before kicking it in and going in. The great thing that Erik enjoyed about the 80's was the lack of security systems put in. As they walked into the surplus story Erik gently set down Finley as Erik took a fire blanket off a shelf and put it around her. Looking at the racks of clothing Erik raised an eyebrow seeing the old American military combats with what seemed to less ruined versions of the combats along with replicas of different colours. Taking a pair of black military style cargo pants he pulled them on over his legs before looking around and spotting bundles of socks. Taking them Erik pulled a pair and spotting boxes of combat boots from the shelves h checked his foot size to make sure he was still measured as a sized 11 for shoes. Seeing that he was he pulled a pair of boots on and rooted around for a t-shirt choosing a plain black one and an old canvas khaki combat shirt. Once he had that pulled on Erik rooted around for clothes for Finley, there wasn't much for kids clothing but the t-shirt he pulled over her head was large enough to cover everything until he could get her real clothes.

Moving around Erik picked up an old rucksack and sighed picking up a 'kit' from the surplus from the store. He took emergency blankets, a couple of plastic canteens, even took some of the MRE's they were selling to the public. Looking around he looked behind the counter seeing that this place also sold guns and ammo, forgetting that it was the 80's Erik climbed over the counter and rooted about finding keys, it was sad how some people thought that a simple door and locks would protect their supplies and products they were selling. Unlocking the case and pulling out a Beretta M9 Erik checked it before putting it into the front of his pants as he picked up three empty clips and four boxes of ammo and setting it on the counter. Closing up everything else he put the keys back and went around and picked up his pack and set about putting the items he left on the counter into the bag before he spotted a US Navy Kabar. Not bothering to go and get the keys again Erik broke the glass while Finley ran over and stopped just short of the shards of glass and watched as Erik pulled the knife out and jammed it into the pack before closing it up.

Putting the bag on his back Erik turned and looked at Finley before picking her up and taking out the way they came and back down the street. Erik's next stop was to look for a bank machine, this was before cameras became a big thing. Coming across an outdoor one by a casino Erik set down Finley again before looking her in the eyes. Finley was cold and she was looking around in amazement. It was a vastly different world for her considering she was born into a war torn landscape. Pulling his bag around Erik glanced around quickly before he tore into the bank machine with his fists and hands prying it open. Taking all the money out he ended up cutting up his hands and wrists good that Finley cried out looking for something to stop his bleeding. For a machine Erik knew that he had strength and power do so much but for her, for Finley it would never change the fact that she still saw him as a man that could be hurt no matter what.

"Hey, hey it's okay. I'll be alright. See it's stopped bleeding, I'll be okay." Pocketing a few hundred dollars into his shirt pocket Erik closed up the pack tightly after putting the M9 into the bag as well. Hefting the pack back into his back he bent down and picked up Finley again before starting down the street looking for a place for them to stay.

It was a good three hour walk before Erik came across a highway motel, going to the front desk with Finley all curled up and sleeping against him, the attendant cooed over Finley and set them up with a room with two beds and a kitchen. Erik told her that there car broke down along a highway and not wanting to stay and try and flag someone down Erik hiked with his daughter to the nearest city which turned out to be Los Angles.

Once in the room Erik set Finley down on a bed and covered her with a blanket before setting his pack down on his bed, opening it he pulled more money out and put it into his pockets before closing everything up. Taking the key to the room he smiled and locked up behind him and going to the woman that gave them the room.

Asking what was still open because he and his daughter hadn't eaten in a while he was given directions and with a nod he took off down the street he was back about an hour later with some food and some personal hygiene items. With everything put away Erik took the shampoo, soap, razor, knife and some medical items into the bathroom leaving the door open.

First things first were getting the dog tags out of his arm, using the knife he had stolen he cut back into his arm opening up the wound, with his arm over the sink Erik put the knife down and reached into his arm with a small grunt and rooted around. When he felt the chain of the dog tags he pulled at it gently and after biting down on the impulse of pain his human part of himself shut down and the pain receded into his mind. Pulling the tags out he unwound the chain and rinsed off the blood before quickly pullimh the tags over his head. Looking to his arm Erik turned the water on and washed the blood off his arm and watched the machine through the slit before he took some dressing and waterproof tape and wrapping his arm up. Looking into the mirror Erik noticed the half beard he had developed. Taking the razor in hand leaned forwards after using the bar of soap to lather his face and set about shaving his face for the first time a very long time.

Washing away the soap Erik looked up and smiled looking at the man that he saw before him. Erik was a good looking guy even when growing up, as he aged and he was taken by Skynet and turned into a machine even at an 'advanced age' by some kids he held his own. Now with the fact that the machines made him and he looked slightly younger and he felt good about himself.

Looking back into the room Erik shut the door half-way and stripped down before stepping into the shower and turning on the water. It had been an equally long time since he had a hot shower making him groan happily. Scrubbing away all the dirt and grime that had stuck to him for months, Erik rinsed off and stepped out drying off and putting his clothes back on before going back out and sitting on the edge of his bed as it groaned under his weight.

Finley shifted a little in her bed causing Erik to smile, he had a daughter after so long he had a daughter. 2029 was a long way from 1988 but Erik knew right now he would be about to be born and one day he would turn into a great man that served his country, fought in several wars and the one war that nearly everyone lost.

Finley rolled over and her eyes sleepily opened up looking at Erik who leaned forwards his elbow on his knees.

"Hey little one, sleep well?"

"I'm cold daddy…"

Erik's heart warmed at hearing the word 'Daddy', getting up Erik went over and pulled the blanket back and picked up Finley taking her to the bathroom with the shower and tub, sitting her down on the toilet seat Erik put the block into the tub drain and turned the taps making sure the water was warm but not too warm for Finley while adding bubble soap to it.

"This is to help you get clean Finley, take the shirt off and climb in. We gotta wash you and make you all clean, I'll have to go out and get you some clothes in an hour or two once stores open up. When I go out you will stay here, sleep, eat some of the food I brought back and wait for me yeah?"

"Yes Daddy."

Finley smiled and hugged Erik before climbing into the tub, Erik sat down at the side of the tub and leaned his back against the wall watching as Finley played with the bubbles, this was her first bath from his guess. There was no fear in her eyes seeing as she's seen Terminators and even went so far as to jump into a truck that was war zone bound. Leaning his head back Erik took a slow deep breath and blinked so that a HUD had brought itself up in his vision. Looking at the year and the Chronometric time that was displayed before he blinked again and his vision returned to normal.

Finley even though the idea of having a bath was fun and entertaining she yawned, moving to his knees he pulled the bottle of children's shampoo closer before opening and pouring a little bit into his hands.

"Hey little one, I need you to close your eyes, I'm going to wash your hair okay?" Finley listened closing her eyes as Erik washed her hair. It was a good few scrubs and rinses before Erik washed Finley and showed her what to do for the future because washing a little girl even to him now was a little awkward. Once she was all clean and the water was emptying from the tub Erik wrapped a towel around Finley and picked her up and carried her back into the room and set her on the bed pulling the towel tighter around her before taking another towel and towelling off Finley's head. Beneath all the dirty and grime Finley had beautiful brunette hair, and her features even with the baby fat were sharp and well proportioned, Finley would grow up to be an even more beautiful woman. Chuckling Erik reached for the shirt she had been wearing and pulled it over her head and dressed her pulling the larger towel away.

Erik kicked off his boots and laid down on the bed, he was tired and when he felt a pressure he raised his head up he saw Finley crawl up and curl up on his chest listening to his heart beat underneath the flesh and the metal that made him up.

"Love you…" And with that Finley went to sleep as Erik closed his tired eyes and he too went to sleep if only for a couple hours with his arms wrapped around Finley.

It was just after lunch time that Erik woke up and he yawn before stretching, Finley was still asleep after the time jump and everything that happened afterwards it wasn't surprising. Gently shifting her off his chest Erik got up off the bed as quietly as possible and pulled his boots back on tying them up, standing he went to the stolen rucksack and opened it up counting through the money, Erik took enough to buy a vehicle, clothing and camping gear. Looking to Finley, Erik went to the fridge and opened it reaching for some fruit he had bought along with a sandwich from a local 7-eleven along with a bottle of juice. Setting it on the table Erik went over to Finley and gently woke her seeing sleepy eyes.

"Hey, I'm going to go out and get us some things, I need you to stay here. Don't open the door, don't make noise. There is some food for you on the table if you are hungry. I'll be back as soon as I can okay?"

"Okay Daddy." Erik chuckled and carded a hand through her hair before standing and heading out and locking up. With the money in his pockets Erik started down the street at a brisk pace. There was a car dealership about five or six blocks down and he figured that would be better to get that first so he could travel around better. Walking onto the lot Erik was reminded that gas prices were down and the economy was well in hand, taking a look at some of the trucks that were on the lot Erik was approached by a salesman asking him if everything was alright. Erik's targeting reticle automatically came up and scanned him against Erik's mental judgement, the man wasn't a threat but the machine portion of him wanted to make sure.

"I'm doing well, just looking for a vehicle to drive off the lot actually."

"Well everything here is like that, you got cash, credit, cheques we can do all that for you, is there anything that you are looking for in particular?"

"A pickup, one with a flatbed cover. Maybe a Dodge or a Ford?" Following the man around Erik was shown an old Dodge Ram in an Anvil colour. It looked a tad beaten up but for the most part from Erik's inspection it was actually well taken care of minus the couple body dings. Nodding Erik said he would take the truck and at the price of 1200$ Erik was surprised but again reminded that currency was in a better place to buy items than it had been in the 2000's.

The purchase was quick and Erik even managed to get away without having to produce ID, thank god for the past. This would have to be something he would have to do soon fix if he wanted to put Finley through any form of education. Even if he couldn't actually put her through public schooling now he would have to begin teaching her how to read, write, and as time goes on to work technology and weapons in case the war does come to pass.

Remembering that the time that he was sent to allowed him for couple years before the 'Uncle Bob' unit showed up, he could raise Finley in relative safety. After purchasing clothing, camping equipment, weapons and food Erik returned to the motel and parked the truck. Taking the bags and his purchases from the truck to the motel room Erik found Finley munching on the sandwich a couple hours later, she saw him and smiled happily before going back to her food and her juice bottle. Once everything was inside Erik shut the door locking it and going to the bags that had Finley's clothing. Grabbing a pair of jeans, underwear, a pink zip up sweater, a baby-blue t-shirt and a pair of sneakers he went over to Finley and put them on the bed.

"I got you some clothes, hopefully they fit you and you like them." Finley went over to the clothes almost touching them but she pulled her hands back realizing her hands were dirty, Erik nodded over to the sink in the bathroom. "Go wash your hands kiddo." Finley ran off to that allowing for Erik to pull his own new clothing from a bag, he forgot what it was like to be in a time where it was easy enough to get clothes but forever a soldier he found it difficult to have clothes that make him blend in when all he remembered was wearing uniforms and suits. Deciding on the stone wash jeans Erik pulled his boots off and changed into the jeans along with a pair of boxers. The t-shirt and the shirt he was wearing over the t-shirt was good enough. Taking a box out Erik removed the brand new wallet out of it and set about putting money away into black leather before putting it into his back pocket. Finley had since washed up and without help from Erik but rather taking from his example changed clothing and ran to the mirror in the bathroom and smiled happily.

"Look! I look pretty!" Erik laughed and nodded agreeing with the little girl, Finley ran back up as Erik dug around through one of the bags finding a brush. Kneeling down he brushed her hair and pulled her shoulder length hair into a pony tail leaving her bangs to frame her face. Kissing the top of her hair Erik stood and went around pulling duffle bags out from another military surplus store and began organizing everything. Once everything was set Erik sat down to eat, he was hungry and with the sandwich, orange and apple and the water bottle he pulled from the fridge he ate quickly and happily knowing for the first time in months he was full.

Loading up the truck Erik turned in the key with Finley beside him who waved at the lady before they climbed into the truck and Erik pulled out and away.

* * *

-1997-

"Fin, what are you doing? You got school!"

"I'm looking for my pack dad" Erik had devoted the last eight years after being sent back into time raise Finley and continue prepping for the T-800 that was sent back for John. Knowing that, Erik had spent over the last eight years amassing money in illegal arms trafficking before stopping and disappearing off the grid. The criminals were all arrested and the evidence of the weapons he had sold them all linked to murders and gang rivalry. Standing at the bottom of the stairs of the house he had bought he held up the bag in one hand.

"You mean this back pack yeah?" Fin's head poked around the corner of the upstairs banister to see her dad and her raised eyebrow. She gave him a sheepish grin as he laughed. At age 14 Finley was an extremely well rounded girl, even with teaching her on the run at times she turned out well. Erik put her through martial arts training, weapons training, and computer education once the technology became available. She ate through everything that he threw at her and now she was in high school, the exact same one that John Conner was at actually once Erik had set himself and Fin up with passports, birth certificates, the whole works through illegal means.

Erik now acted as a private investigator and hired body guard to keep himself somewhat busy, standing in his black suit and a blue button down along with sunglasses perched on his head he fiddled with the tie before deciding to remove it and undo the first top two buttons.

"Looking good dad."

"You too Fin, you grew up really well you know that?"

Fin came down the stairs and blushed, the war was a distant past but it reminded her to be humble and that her dad was here on a mission, raising her because she jumped onto the transport truck just to be with him made her smile. She missed her own mother and father, but Erik was the one that saved her all those years ago and to her he was her father even through everything. This world was something she would never take for granted and it was also something that she would fight to protect even it meant protecting John Connor who was currently flunking his English class despite being a really smart kid. It was clear that there was always something more important to John instead of studying for the Shakespeare final they had coming up. But it also the next couple of days that their lives would change forever, Erik had spent a good time money gathering what they could to protect John as well as fight the T-1000 that would be showing up that weekend.

"Let's go, hopefully you can get your test scores before this weekend yeah?"

"Oh I can only hope, you know I never knew how much Shakespeare had changed our world."

"Oh he did more than that, he inspired generations of actors and writers. I have to check up at the Masons' and close this case before I pick you up from school. Make sure that John doesn't do anything stupid today eh?" Finley gave a thumbs up after putting her coat on and taking the bag from her dad's hand. The two of the locked up and got into Erik's truck that he kept in great condition after his purchase. Driving to the high school that Finley and John went to Erik kissed her cheek after she hugged him and bounded out in jeans, long sleeve shirt and sweater under her windbreaker.

Making sure she made it to the door after ignoring a few of the jocks Erik laughed and pulled away heading to his job, private investigation was good business and after getting hired into a small company he solved a good portion of their unsolved cases allowing for the reputation to increase and more people to be hired on to replace him when he leaved the next day.

By the time that Fin finished school Erik had settled the case and his boss allowed him to leave a day early, getting his final paycheck Erik deposited it and pulled a good portion of his money out saying he was going travelling with his daughter and it was going to be a surprise.

Sitting at the pickup point Erik was reading a newspaper when he heard the bell, turning his head he looked at the doors as student burst out of it before looking back at the article he was reading. Excitement from the teens and the plans that he overheard Erik had to shake his head before he heard Finley's voice and a couple of the jocks coming up behind her. Turning his head and looking over top of his sunglasses Erik's gaze took in the men assessing them without his HUD coming up, one of the jocks had the nerve to put a hand on Finley's before she turned pulling her hand out of his scowling. The Jock tried again only to laid out by Fin with a slap to the face with her text book in hand and a blow to the inside of his knee followed by upswing blow to the underside of the Jock's chin knocking him on his back.

"That's for making some of the most disgusting comments about my ass and what you want to do with it. No matter what you say I wouldn't go near you with a ten foot pole let alone have sex with you asshole. So go find some other girl." Erik's eyebrow raised up into his hairline as Finley walked away and the Jock's buddies went to go pick him up as she opened the door and climbed into the passenger side seat pulling the door shut. Erik was still looking at Finley as she looked forwards and people were whispering about her, the truck and the man that was in the truck with her.

Erik put the newspaper away before starting up the truck before the truck door was ripped open and Finley was pulled out, Erik pulled the seat belt off and got out of the driver's seat as Finley was thrown to the ground by the Jock. The boy had his fist pulled back but before his fist could fly Erik's hand crushed the Jock's before twisting it around to the boy's back pinning him to the side of the truck.

"You want to try that again?"

"Get off me man!"

"No, I won't because you attacked my daughter and I really don't appreciate some sleaze bag touching what isn't his and was never given to him. As the father to that girl, you better hope I don't go to your parents to tell them exactly what you tried to do. As a retired military service man I'm the last person you want to try and get into a fist fight with. So here is what is going to happen, I am going to let you go, you are going to stay away from my daughter because the next time I'm told you tried to touch her I will kill you. Am I clear?"

The boy's head rocked up and down before Erik pulled him away from the truck and released him spinning him around. He got into the boy's face as his eyes flash bright red scaring the Jock away before he took off running in fear. The crowd that had been around watching dispersed as Finley sat up and Erik walked over kneeling down getting a good look at his daughter.

"You alright little one?"

Finley looked up at her old pet name and saw her dad look worriedly at her, sniffling a little she saw his hand being held out. Being pulled to a stand Erik pulled her into a hug before they got back into the truck with their things and drove off.

"I'm okay dad, thank you."

"You're welcome, who was the Jock?"

"Some guy that's been trying to get into my pants, wants to have sex with me and nothing more."

"Well sadly at that age, that's all they care about. I remember when I was their age it was something I wanted but I never went to the extent they did. Granted I never had to, they all came to me." Erik looked over and grinned, Fin looked over cleaning her hands up with a Wet wipes.

"And you saying I'm not attracting them all?" Fin turned her gaze to her dad when she saw his shit eating grin realizing that even though they didn't share blood it was clear she was his daughter. She threw the Wet wipe cloth that hit his shoulder causing him to roar with laughter as they drove.

Arriving home Erik pulled up in the driveway and put the truck into park and cutting the engine before he looked to Finley with a sad smile. Holding the keys in hand Erik put his arm around the back of Finley's seat as she looked at her dad.

"I wish I could have given you a full normal life, you don't need to be part of this war, and you could leave and continue on with being a normal girl."

"No, I made a promise to Connor the day that I hid in that truck. You protected me when my mother died and you saved me from the Terminator, you took care of me after that and I wanted to stay with you to the end. These last eight years have been great, this world… I want to fight for it. If we can prevent the war and help John now. I'll do it dad." Erik nodded seeing that he raised her well including giving her a chance to be normal, maybe if they could prevent the war or postpone it than maybe he could still give Finley a great life.

"Okay… get inside pack up your things, we'll kill 'Gregory and Fin Samuals' tonight before we head to the safe house." Finley nodded and got out of the truck before Erik nodded once and got out of the truck closing up and heading inside. Finley was wandering around picking up photos the two of the had taken over the years and looking at them before taking a large photo album with exact same photos and opening it looking through the pages.

Erik tossed his keys on the side table by the door and walked up to her looking over her shoulder at the images, Erik had felt that it was important for Finley to have photos of their time here and he had purchased a camera in the very early days when they had arrived in the past. Smiling at the images Erik wrapped an arm around Finley and hugged her before kissing the side of her head before walking off towards the basement taking off his suit coat. Finley packed the photo album away lovingly into a her black military duffel bag her dad had bought for this purpose, all the photos in the frames were copies, every original was put into the album and it was something she treasured. After she finished taking the small important things and putting it away into the pack with clothing, and other supplies she closed it up and took it to the door and laid it down carefully at the landing and placed the stuffed rabbit that Erik had sewn for her as a child on top. Turning and going to the basement she saw her dad standing topless with tan military style cargo pants doing up his belt his feet were already in his boots.

"Looking good dad." Erik looked up from his belt and raised an eyebrow before he shook his head, Finley eyed her dad noting that in all her years with him he never once aged or if he did it didn't show despite him being a hybrid. The only difference and as subtle as was were the grey hairs that were up at his temples now instead of just hinted throughout his hair.

Erik had an extremely well kept body and even though he was half machine he ate well, exercised every day and took care of his organics. His abs were enough to have women stare at him when he took Finley to the beaches as a child, he was exceptionally fit and it was something that he explained to her about people and attractiveness and relationships.

Finley remembered even in the eight years here Erik never had a girlfriend, never dated that she noticed he was always doting on her, however there were a few nights when she came home from a friend's sleep over that she heard womanly noises come from her dad's room and the sound of flesh slapping flesh. Shaking her head she shuttered and thought about the implication that she had caught her dad verbally having sex. Finley's attention was called to her when Erik walked up to her fully clothed with a black t-shirt on and a grey cotton button up partly done.

"Finley, you okay?"

"Yes dad, just remembering something that's all." Erik shook his head and turned back to the three bags he set up and finished backing them up and closing them. Weapons, money, maps, food, clothes and armour laid within and after it was all set up Erik took all the bags in hand and went up with Finley. There was a jeep out back that had its vehicle cover pulled off. Finley followed out to the back with her own two bags and she set them on the ground hugging her stuffed bunny as Erik put the bags into the back and closed up.

"You got the keys right?"

"I do dad."

"Okay, head off to the safe house, I might be a bit dinged up so pull the first aid kit out when you arrive at the safe-house. Remember to take the path I showed you and stay off the main roads." Finley hugged her dad and climbed into the Jeep starting it and taking it off the property through the alley behind the houses as Erik turned walking back into the house. He had a house to rig and set to blow up.

Spending a good portion of two hours setting the boiler to blow Erik stood pulling leather gloves off and putting them on the work table with tools and a half done project he hastily put together as a cover for why his gloves were there. Wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand Erik pulled on the gas line enough that there was a small tear before he walked upstairs and went to the fridge to make something quick for food. Going to a closet Erik pulled out two black bags and looked at them as they were dressed as him and Finley.

It took some moving around and more money than he wanted to use but he had dental record, blood types and all sorts of information changed so that it matched to the two bodies here. They were still warming when Erik hefted them up and took one upstairs placing one in a tub of water he had set up dumping the naked young girl in before taking the other one and setting him downstairs in the work space.

With the gas leaking now Erik could smell the fumes and after pulling on a fire retardant jacket and pants over Kevlar armour, he pulled on a hood and slathered on gel onto his hood and what was showing of his face before pulling on gloves and soaking them in the protective gel. Bending down Erik pulled a harder on the gas line and stood there on top of a towel that was covered in accelerate to burn faster.

"Well… here goes…" Erik turned his back to the gas line and after counting to ten he pulled on a string that opened the door to the boiler and the gas ignited blowing everything up as Erik dropped to a knee and covered his head with arms. The machine part of him took over as everything started to collapse around him from the explosion and the fire, he had sit and wait till everything stopped moving. Once it was finished but the fire was still burning Erik pushed himself to a stand and looked down to his body and took in everything before he pushed himself out of the mess. Going out through a hole in the foundations Erik heard a second explosion that caught him in the side of the face before he climbed to his feet and took off in the darkness away from his former home.

Running at a machine's pace Erik ran faster than most of the cars because he wasn't relying on muscles from his human body, whatever muscles were left were for appearance and they weren't pushed as hard as he was pushing his hydraulics. It was another hour and a half before he made it to his location located in the woods. It was an RV with the Jeep parked by the door. Erik walked up to it as human senses started to come back causing Erik to groan, he was hurt that much was clear by the pounding along the side of his face and his back.

Finley came out of the RV with a shotgun poised seeing the figure raise its hand up it Finley stood ready to fire, her training that Erik gave her really paid off until Erik pulled the mask off and she dropped the dropped the gun to the side and she ran to him.

"Dad!"

"Fin… honey…" reaching her dad Finley reached up and gently touched Erik's face seeing that there was a tiny portion that had been pulled away revealing the skeleton machine underneath. Erik dropped his face so she could see him better before he dropped to a knee as his back started to really hurt, Finley went around and saw that her dad's back had a good sized hole and something imbedded in the flesh and part of the machine.

"What did you do to yourself?"

"I don't know, feels like there is something wedged in my back."

"It's because there is dad."

"Lovely, can you get it out?" Erik looked over his shoulder and looked as best as he could but Finley was behind him gently prodding inside the damaged skin. Her hand was on her shoulder but she moved away from him and came around shaking her head.

"Not without any light, come on dad we need to get you inside." Erik pushed himself to a stand and shuffled to the RV climbing inside before Finley led him to the large bed Erik had installed. The two of them would share it and it was something they did when they went camping, Fin always cuddled up beside her dad listening to him tell stories that lulled her to sleep.

Sitting on the edge of the bed Erik started pulling off the protective clothing with Finley's help and when he was topless he laid on his stomach as Finley pulled a pair of pliers out along with a pair of gloves and a medical bag. Putting the medical bag down on the floor by her feet. The flesh was damaged in an area a little larger than her shoe. The machine underneath the flesh and muscle whined as it tried to shift correctly despite the foreign object between two of the 'vertebrae'.

Moaning in pain Erik turned his head away as Finley pulled a pair of latex gloves on before turning on the light above the bed and wincing seeing the damage done to her dad. Taking the pliers in hand Finley put a hand on the upper portion of her dad's back and pushed down lightly before reaching into the hole and began to pry the metal fragment out. After five minutes of trying to pull the object out with a cry of happiness, Erik sighed happily as the machine components shifted correctly back into place. Putting the pliers down Finley switched her gloves and opened the med kit searching for items to cover the wound. Her dad had left his eyes closed and it looked like he had begun to fall asleep, she couldn't blame him at all for doing so and with what he had to do to so that they could move on with their mission it was worth letting him rest. Covering the hole up Finley was reminded that everything time her dad had come home injured in some fashion she was thankful and yet resentful that Skynet had done what it had done to humans. She leaned over and cleaned the damaged tissue along the side of his face and bandaged it up, it wasn't as bad as it looked and it be healed quickly for tomorrow or so she hope, she was brought back to the time when Erik had taken a blow to the face and rescued her, he looked so much the same now as he did then and her thoughts took another depressing turn.

One day Erik could outlive her and that thought alone brought a tear to her eye, closing her eyes she quietly let a tear fall when she felt a hand cup the side of her face and she saw her patched up dad look at her with a sad smile. He knew and he would always know, he raised her as a single father and as someone that wanted a better life for her.

"It's okay… let's cook up some food and watch some stars hmm?" Erik had since sat up pulling Finley in close kissing her cheek. Nodding Erik changed his clothing pulling a tight fitting tank top to keep the bandage in place before pulling a t-shirt over top. Finley had cleaned up and went about gathering the camp barbeque and supplies taking them outside in front of the two camp chairs she had set up earlier.

Erik walked out with hotdogs and buns in a cooler, once they set up the charcoal in the charcoal bbq they sat in front thinking about the day tomorrow and the fact they were going to have to go to the mall that had a lot of people. The jeep would a quick getaway from what John had told Erik about his history with the Terminator the rescued him.

This would be last night that Erik cold be able to give Finley a normal life and then all that hell would break loose and they would be fighting to protect John Connor from everything. After their dinner and relaxing father and daughter gazed up to the stars and curled up against each other, the future would be forever changed with their suggestions.

* * *

-Next day-

"Dad, I would like to remind you that my birthday is coming up and I would like a new sweater." Erik turned to look at Finley raising an eyebrow.

"A sweater… why can't you be like normal girls and ask for dresses, makeup, hell I'll even take a demand for a cell phone." Finley just grinned and hugged Erik's arm as they walked by a few clothing stores on their way to the Galleria Arcade.

"It's not practical enough."

"Go figure you pick up on some of my useful habits, thank god." The two made it to the Galleria and 'lo and behold there was a young John Connor, Erik's HUD reacted without his thought as it targeted John before receding. Finley took some money from Erik and went to get quarters while Erik stood by looking at some of the games he used to play and was going to until the T-1000 showed up, whenever that was. It was the easiest way of meeting the T-800 protector and getting John the hell out of dodge.

The two played games for no more than twenty minutes before the T-1000 showed up and stopped John's friend, Erik turned to Finley and pushed her towards John.

"Get him out of here Fin." Finley turned away from her dad and went to where John was grabbing him as he looked at her in surprise.

"John we need to go, and now." The T-1000 was trying to be stalled by John's friend and seeing the uniform, Finley and John took off out of the back with Erik ramming the proto-type against the machine following through the same door. Erik was glad for civilian military wear as he skidded down a hall seeing the T-800 with a shotgun in hand pointed at him. The two scanned each other with the T-800 moving to stand beside Erik who pulled his M9 out from the holster at the back of his pants and pointed down the hall where the T-1000 turned a corner.

"John Connor cannot stay here, his mother is to be rescued upon escape."

"Acknowledged."

The two opened fire on the T-1000 and watched as it went down with bullet impacts all along its chest and five in its face. Ejecting the empty clip Erik slammed a new on in as the T-800 shucked the final shell from the breach and started reloading. The T-1000 self-healed and pushed itself to a stand before it knocked Erik back into a wall before attacking the T-800. Erik looked to John and Finley yelling at them.

"Get out of here, get in the Jeep and start it up, if we don't get down there before this thing, drive!" The T-800 was slammed into the ground as Erik pulled himself out of the wall attacking the T-1000 and dodging under a swing of a blade before shoulder ramming through the opposite wall with the T-800 in tow. Erik was kicked into clothing and kicked in the face with the T-800 engaging in a fist fight with the T-1000 before being thrown out of the front of the store glass and crashing onto its back. Erik pushed himself to a stand again but was grabbed by the T-1000 and held up by the collar of his shirt and thrown through the same opening but he skidded past the T-800 and through another set of glass that divided and protected people from going off the second level to the level below.

When Erik landed he cratered the ground from landing on his side and sliding a couple of feet further on his front after he rolled onto it. People were screaming and talking about it, calling for help when the T-800 pushed himself to a stand taking off after the T-1000 while Erik climbed to his feet and shaking his head jerkily as he walked away from the scene jogging for the parkade. Seeing that the Jeep had taken off with the T-1000 running after the vehicle Erik and the T-800 ran for the bikes and seeing the key in John's dirt bike, Erik kicked started it as the T-800 had started his Harley and had taken off. Jumping through a hedge Erik and the T-800 rode after the T-1000 who had commandeered a flat nose big rig.

Pointing to the broken chain link that led into the waterways the two Terminators rode looking for the right waterway. They took short cuts as Erik jumped through a gap into the waterway behind the big rig as the T-800 took the highroad. The T-800 couldn't get Erik enough of a gap for him to get by even firing the shotgun as he rode a level up from the semi truck. The T-800 joined the fray on the ground level after jumping off a ledge before Erik and the machine zig zagged hoping to get by the semi. The more powerful Harley was able to get by the semi before a tire was shot out the front end.

Seeing that the semi was going to crash, Erik blitzed by the truck as it slammed on its brakes screeching to a halt at a divider with resounding crash. The Jeep rolled to a stop with Finley looking out the driver's seat as the T-800 pulled up beside the jeep and Erik skidded to a halt before getting off the bike jogging for the vehicle. Looking at the flames Erik and the Terminator stared into the fire before Erik turned and shoo'ed Finley into the back along with John.

Both Terminators climbed into the vehicle with Erik in the driver's seat, they pulled away with the T-800 looking at the fire for the enemy machine. When they got onto the main roads Erik drove while John started to have a panic attack, his classmate was a crazy driver that apparently could drive. The man in biker leathers was scary on his own and looked a little banged up and the man in the driver's seat had a few cuts along the side of his neck, his scalp and his back.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, pull over, pull the fuck over!" Erik looked to the T-800 who nodded before they pulled off into an alley and parked. Erik turned in his seat with his arm resting on the seat back. John looked at them all wildly rushing to climb out of the vehicle running his hands through his hair pacing.

"Okay… okay… He's a Terminator right?" John pointed to the T-800 that got out of the Jeep with shotgun in hand pushing shells into the breach.

"Yes, Cyberdyne Systems Model 101" John's eyes bugged out as he looked to the other man that had saved him but looked a little worse for wear as Finley got out with a wet cloth in hand and some bandages under her armpit.

"What's he?" John asked pointing at Erik, Finley glowered at the young human savior before handing the bandages and stuff to her dad. Erik spoke up as Finley made herself busy pulling the shards of glass that were in his back and side out.

"I'm a hybrid… I don't have a model number because Skynet deemed me not worth of one after I made a great escape. I'm a human in a machine body, my brain is encased in the dome, my heart is protected by case and a chest plate. My internal organs were adapted and placed within a special chassis. I eat, sleep, all the human stuff but with the longevity and power of a Terminator."

"How do I know you aren't here to kill me?"

"Don't you dare say that about my dad!" Finley snarled at John going over and prodding him in the chest hard a few times before going back to her dad and finishing up the patch work. John went and sat against a wall looking at the three.

"And I suppose he gave you life?"

"No, he saved me in the war after my parents were killed. I came with him from the future to protect your whiney sorry ass." Erik rose an eyebrow as the T-800 finished it's reload and walking over to it's fellow terminator.

"We need to get as far away from the city as possible, and avoid any of the authorities."

"Agree, however there is a side mission we much do before we leave the city. We have to release Sarah Conner from where she is being held."

"I cannot, that is not part of the mission parameters." Erik sighed looking down to John, Finley had tossed away the garbage and all but guarded John with a stare.

"John, I need you to save a few words for me." The young boy looked up and cocked his head to the side at Finley's father who was staring at the Biker Terminator, "Say: I order you to help retrieve Sarah Connor."

"I order you to help retrieve Sarah Connor." The T-800 turned from Erik and looked at John nodding before going to the passenger side of the Jeep, Finley grabbed at John and they climbed into the vehicle with Erik climbing into the driver's seat as John poked his head between the divider staring at Erik.

"What was that about?"

"That Terminator is your personal protector, he's programmed to follow your orders. Me and my daughter, we're here as added insurance for you and your protector. Skynet had vastly changed the game and to offset that we are here to help play in that off-set." Erik started the jeep and pulled out of the alley heading for a gas station where Erik gassed up the jeep, filled the jerry cans on the back, bought travel food and drinks before they went off to the mental Hospital that Sarah was being held at.

"Okay, no killing people that means you Terminator. If you have to, just injure. Finley, I know I ask a lot of you however I need you to stay with the jeep and have it ready to at a moment's notice." Finley nodded as they traveled along the darkened road. The T-800 had cocked it's head to the side and all that John did was order the machine not to kill anyone, when the Terminator questioned as to why it wasn't allowed to kill John did his best to explain why you do you not kill. Upon arriving at the mental hospital Erik looked out at the building before looking to the guard that came out telling the visiting hours. Getting out of the driver's seat Erik went up to the man grabbing him by his collar and before the man could even so much as yell for help Erik head-butted the man knocking him out. With the limp body in hand Erik carried him into the guard shack and pulled three magazines from the man's belt and opened the gate before jogging out and climbing back into the Jeep giving Finley the three clips and drove past the gate. Going to the underground parking they pulled up close to the elevator before shutting the engine off.

"We'll try and make this as quick and quiet as possible. John, I know you want to come with us but let me and the big guy handle this. Stay in the back seat and keep low, don't get seen." The two Terminators got out of the vehicle allowing for the jeep to lift up a few inches more making it taller. Shutting the doors the two walked to the elevator hitting the call button. The T-800 was tall and massively built, but the difference between it and Erik was that while Erik was just as tall his build was different. Where there was bulk on the T-800 series, whatever Erik was so that the machine matched an appealing human frame. He had an athletic frame just short of a brawler, he certainly had the 'ideal' military build for a soldier, just a little slimmer.

When the door opened Erik and the T-800 stepped in, the elevator car groaned but took their heavy weight up to the floor where there was yelling and screaming already in progress. Erik pulled his M9 from his holster and started for the sound with the T-800 in tow.

AS they turned the corner the woman they came to get was on the ground being restrained while a second woman was being restrained while two men, one without an arm and the other that looked very familiar was getting punched in the face.

Going over to them Erik thought better than to use the handgun and put it away before running and ramming the man holding onto the other woman before turning and grabbing a skinny white guy and throwing him through a door. The T-800 came up and pulled the rest of the men away from woman on the ground while the woman in black was helped up by the man with one arm.

The man looked up as red eyes flashed, Erik's eyes flashed red in return before the two women were released. The man that had been punched in the face came up looking at Erik wiping at blood around his nose.

"You?"

"I wish I could say I'm glad to see you, but how are you and her here?"

"Kyle… who is this?"

Erik took in the scene and had to blink rapidly looking to the woman that was staring scared right up at the T-800 he was with the shotgun leaning against its shoulder to the woman in black and Kyle Reese. This was all wrong, everything was all wrong.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Second Chapter of the story, I am writing out longer chapters for this story while I'm rewriting and revising my second Blacklist story. Disclaimers are at the first chapter and they stand, and take a guess at how many references are in this chapter and where they have come from. Cheers!**

**-Guardian**

* * *

"We need to leave, and now…"

"Not until we figure out what the fuck…"

"Nope, not here. We are leaving." Erik pointed over Kyle's shoulder to the approaching T-1000 with its gun raised. Erik turned and picked up the terrified Sarah Conner wedding bride style while Kyle and the third terminator with its missing arm made a wall running for the elevators as the T-1000 opened fire chasing after them. Seeing one of the elevators open, running into the box Erik was the first in followed by the younger more scrapper Sarah Conner, Kyle and both of the Terminators. With the T-1000 on their heels, the door had begun to shut and had shut before a massive blade came in as a thrust.

Everyone pressed against the elevator cart walls except Erik who turn his back and felt something slice his back open. Holding the terrified Sarah in his arms he leaned his head on Sarah's and hissed in pain, it wasn't a small slice that he could feel, it was pretty deep and from his guess fairly wide. With the amount of blood he was feeling coming down his back he turned to look over his shoulder as Sarah grabbed at him closing her eyes while the leather biker clad Terminator put its shotgun into the face of the T-1000 and pulled the trigger blowing it's head apart with the elevator doors closing and disappearing from sight.

Grunting Erik looked down to the Sarah in his arms before looking at the clearly younger looking Sarah being held by Kyle Reese. Opening his mouth Erik was about to ask a question before there was a heavy loud thud on the roof of the elevator cart.

"Fuck!"

Dropping to his knees Erik put Sarah down and covered her body as blades started to pierce the roof, Kyle and the other Sarah ducked down pulling pistols out firing at the ceiling to get the T-1000 off balance to buy time. There was another stab down from the T-1000 and as it came through Erik snapped his hand out at the last second and grabbed the blade that came deathly close to the older scared and now angry Sarah Connor. The flesh of Erik's hand was cut but the machine under that skin gripped tight as the others fired at the T-1000's position on the ceiling before he let it go hearing a thud.

They had made it to the basement where the doors opened, blood was pouring out of the palm of Erik's hand as he picked Sarah up ignoring her screaming and her anger. Running for the Jeep the others took off for a big cabbed truck. John's Terminator stalked with purpose to the jeep where the kids poked their head out from their hiding spot in the back seats. Fin looked at Erik wide eyed and she reached over into the driver's seat starting the Jeep while yelling at John to move into the front along with her. Erik made it to the Jeep just as the Terminator climbed into the driver's seat. Fin pushed open the back door of the four door Jeep as Erik climbed in putting Sarah down and closing the door barely as the Terminator hit the gas.

The big cab truck with the Terminator missing an arm sitting in the back with an assault rifle in its right hand and the rifle stock pressed into the shoulder of the Terminator chased after the Jeep. Fin climbed into the back seat as John sat in the passenger seat looking over the back seat to see the blood soaked shirt of Erik's back and the man's hand that Fin was trying to deal with while Fin was telling the freaking out Sarah to shut up.

It was insane in the vehicles as they raced out of the mental hospital and the T-1000 chancing after them being shot at by the one armed Terminator. As they drove out and off the T-1000 had leapt onto the back of the pickup that but was shot in the face but the Terminator and kicked it off the speeding vehicle watching it crash onto the road. Kyle looked behind with the younger Sarah asking if the T-1000 was gone, the Terminator turned its head acknowledging it's human charge.

The atmosphere in the Jeep was terse and extremely loud, it was a good thing that John's Terminator was driving because Erik would have had a stroke trying to deal with the older looking Sarah, John and the other two. Fin had the overhead light in the Jeep on as she was busy fixing her father's hand with the palm and fingers gushing blood through the gauze she was packing into the wide wounds. Had Erik been human there would have been no tendons connecting his fingers to his wrist and there would be no way he would ever be able to use his hand again.

Tightly wrapping up the hand Erik kept a grip on the thrashing Sarah Connor while John tried to calm his mom down, Fin looked to see the pained look on her dad's face, she didn't want to see the wound on his back that was clearly there.

"Ma'am I'm going to have to ask you to stop yelling and freaking the fuck out. It's not helping me and my focus as I try and patch my dad here." Sarah stopped and looked at Fin before her wild eyes took in the pained look on Erik's face and the amount of blood that was not only her but the girl that was winding some stuff around the man's hand. She looked around seeing John and the Terminator in the driver's seat, something wasn't right as the last time she saw a Terminator it was there to kill her and not save her like it seemed to have and it had people around it.

"We need to get out of the city now." The machine spoke, Erik turned his pained gaze to the machine before looking to John nodding.

"There is a safe location at the State line with an RV and a trailer hitch, Fin give it the location I'll be okay for a minute." Fin nodded and wiped her blood stained hands on her pants before turning and reaching by John to the glove compartment. Opening it she pulled out a map and handed it to the Terminator who took it in one hand.

"Go there, we'll pick up our stuff and we'll leave. There is a main location we need to get to and from there we will figure out what to do, make sure that the others know to follow us. "

"Affirmative." Fin turned back to her dad and watched as Erik's grip slackened on Sarah and the woman moved carefully looking at Erik and his bandaged hand.

"Are you okay?"

"I've been worse…"

"Dad, you need to move your back into the light or I can't patch anything, you are already white enough as it is I'm surprised you haven't forced a slow down." Erik grunt and moved to turn but Sarah sat with her legs stretched out on the seats and pulled Erik to lay down on her legs by his shoulders. What she saw next she didn't think could shake her world any more.

"What the fuck!"

"Keep it down woman!" Fin ground out as she got an earful of the yell, Erik used a hand to help keep the majority of his weight and bulk off of Sarah. The massive gash on Erik's back had cut through the bandage of the previous injury and exposed a really large amount of the machine under Erik's flesh and muscles. Fin was pulling all the heavy gauze padding out of the medical kit she was rooting through and putting it all onto the bleeding mess, it looked not like a knife wound but like someone had taken a gardening hoe to her father's back it also looked like it knicked a bit of the kidney that was there.

"You are going to be pissing blood for a week or two dad, I won't know until the bleeding stops and I can start stitching you back together. Your kidney looks like it got knicked a little but I can't tell with this light and all the bouncing. Here put pressure to this and hold it there, I have to wrap him up as best as I can and I'm running out of materials here." Sarah pushed down on the mass of medical gauze as Erik groaned in pain, how could this man be a machine if he had a daughter? What did Skynet do to people in the future?

Fin had taken the last pressure bandage she had and with the help of Sarah wrapped her dad up as best as she could, Erik had grunted in pain and it finally about five minutes later after that the bleeding started to slow and the pain looked face that Erik had, had receded as the man's eyes closed from his awkward position and he looked like he had passed out. Sarah had adjusted her legs so that she was cradling the man and Fin sat in the divider of the front of the jeep and the back looking worriedly at her dad.

"How?"

"How did he become a machine? I don't know, I was a child of the war, I was very young when Erik rescued me. Saved me from an Endo that had already killed my birth parents and he looked after me until I was placed with another family. I didn't want him to go so I snuck onto a Resistance transport headed for the time displacement equipment and I went through time with my dad.

Dad told me that Skynet had taken him and did experiments on him, twisted him into a Terminator with a fully working organic system. He does everything a human man does and yet he has the power and strength of a Terminator. He's not as 'indestructible' as say the Terminator driving, but he's got his own impressive power considering everything he's been through.

Dad raised me in this time and he even offered me a way out, I didn't take it I want to be with him til the end because this world really is worth saving." Fin looked at the blood on her hands staring at it sadly before she looked up to Sarah who looked to the man lying on her then to the Terminator driving the Jeep. It was clear there was distrust of the model that was currently driving them but when Fin saw Sarah looking at her dad it was sadness and rage.

"How could Skynet do this?"

"Because it could, Skynet does whatever it can to put humanity through to it's end, it doesn't take into account of the lives it destroys so long as it does end the human race. My dad, would do anything to stop it, he's been through so many wars as it is and it's not just the future war. My dad will grow up to be a great military man, we've already seen him in passing but he really is a hero even now." Fin leaned over and ran a hand through her dad's hair lovingly. She sat up in time to feel the Jeep go off-road and she braced herself on the two seats up front of the Jeep. It was another hour before they pulled to a stop in front of a large camper RV. John jumped out followed by the Terminator and Fin who patted her dad's face. Bleary eyes opened as Sarah heard the hydraulics and servos move in the quiet of the car and pushed himself up and Fin had gotten out of the Jeep to help her dad as soon as he all but stumbled out.

The pickup truck had pulled up to them and stopped and Kyle jumped running to help Fin. The younger Sarah jumped out and met the older Sarah who looked down to her hospital clothes to see the blood that was all over them.

The two woman watched as Erik was lowered stomach down onto the lounge chair before Fin ran into the RV and came back with a couple of high powered flash lights and another medical kit that she put down on the ground. Running back into the RV and a minute or two later Fin had run back out with a couple of blood bags and her hands covered in gloves.

After giving orders to Kyle and the Terminator that has been assigned to protect John she got the light that she needed as the two Sarah's stood by watching as the young girl cut away from the bandages and peeled them off her dad. With the blood having stopped it started to bleed a little as she put the blood-soaked bandages on the ground and peered inside her dad looking for any damages to her dad and the machine underneath along with any damage to his organs.

When she had been younger Erik had taught her about the human body at a young age when she took an interest and found that Erik had internal organs that worked alongside the machine components, some of the organs had been modified to take the abuse of having to be inside certain sections of the machine in a protective sheath. If had taken her some getting used to but in the end and after some schooling that she did outside her normal classes Fin found that he ability to pick up just about everything that Erik threw at her. Most of her interest into the human body stemmed from wanting to be able to help Erik who could get hurt and be able to do more than bandage him. As she pulled surgical tools out along with a suturing kit the younger Sarah moved from the older one and went to help Fin fix Erik. Erik had blissfully passed out with his machine portion of his body switching off the pain receptors in Erik's brain.

Sarah knelt down across from Fin and looked at the girl looking at the inside of the man lying on his front on the lounge chair. Fin looked at the younger Sarah before the woman spoke,

"If you let me, I'd like to help you out. This is too much for a single person to patch up… please."

Fin looked to the others that were helping in some way and nodded handing the younger less scared Sarah a pair of medical gloves and together they spent the next hour and a half sewing up the problem flesh and repaired the knicked kidney before they bandaged him up. As the younger Sara and Fin yawned tiredly Kyle and John's Terminator carefully picked up Erik taking him into the RV setting him down onto the bed. Kyle had reached for a blanket that was folded at the end of the bed and unfolded it covering the bandaged man's back.

Fin had finished gathering everything that she could when she saw the older Sarah barefooted walking over to her as she moved lid from a metal trash bin dumping the bag into the bin before reaching down and picking up the fire fuel and squeezing it into the metal bin over top of the bag of used medical things. Putting the bottle down Fin pulled a box of matches and pulled a wooden match out and struck the side of the box and as the match head burst into fire, tossing the match onto the pile. The contents of the metal trash bin came alight as the older Sarah looked at the face of the young girl that took control of the situation and protected her Terminator father.

The young Sarah Connor had come out followed by Kyle and the two other Terminators and John, they saw Fin standing there staring at the fire before she turned her back to it and gazed at the older Sarah.

"My father stuck his neck out for you Connor, you better appreciate that we did everything we could to protect you and your son. I haven't seen my father this badly injured since I last saw him in the war before we came here. Whatever is going on with the father that your younger self is here with Kyle is really off putting. Until my father wakes up we're are going to follow his plan that he set up and told me of. We are packing up, hitching the Jeep to the back and we are taking off from here. We need to get out of the state and out of the country we need to because it really isn't safe here."

"I have to agree, we've jumped time lines trying to figure out what happened when we saw General Connor as a Terminator. We barely escaped with our lives, from whatever future we were in, they did something to him and I don't know what to do. It was by sheer luck that we came to this time line, but we knew we had to get her out." Kyle said looking at the older Sarah, the woman crossed her arms and glared all around to the group.

"I could get out myself, I didn't need help."

"Woman, if I was you I would be shutting that trap right now. We are now in this with two T-800's, a hybrid and some really fucked up fractured time line crap. You need all the help you can get. Let's just get out of here and head north. Through the back country, my father set up a few places for us to lay low in the Canadian wilderness and we are going to head to the closest one." Fin left the group to go towards the Jeep but was stopped by the one armed Terminator who went in her stead to hitch the Jeep with the help of Kyle. John's terminator came over with another blanket and put it over the shoulders of the younger Sarah before going to the older one who told the machine to fuck off before going into the RV followed by her son.

"I wonder what happened to make her that bitter…" Younger Sarah said tightening the blanket around her as Fin came up to her watching Kyle and the machine finish with the Jeep as well as unloading it and the truck that they arrived in.

"What happened to your Terminator?"

"My son happened, we managed to pull him into the temporal vortex to an unknown time. John had already pulled the arm out at the shoulder and he was fighting handicapped with nothing more than I could do but watch. I wasn't ready for my dad to sacrifice himself for me so I grabbed and jumped before John could do anything more. When we landed it was like something compelled us to go to the mental hospital. It was only when we heard on the radio the mall attack that we knew that there was a Terminator here, we did some tracking down on some leads and ended up at the mental hospital just as she had made a run for it. Then you guys came upon us or your dad and the biker over there and then we saw another T-1000 and we ran." Fin scratched at her arms lightly looking at the fire that was now dying down now there was nothing left to burn, sighing she looked to the group it was clear that they were done and they needed to leave.

"Let's just get on the road, we all need some rest, I'll give the coordinates to John's Terminator so it can drive and we can rest. I want to check on my dad and just sit down." After climbing on board Fin told the leather clad Terminator where to go along with a map for it to digitize on its HUD, know that was something that Erik had explained to her that the Terminators would be able to do.

Once they had pulled off into the dirt road everyone seemed to have found spots to sit in the RV, it was quiet in the vehicle as Fin crawled onto the bed in the back were her dad was laying and curled up next to him holding his hand and closing her eyes. The one armed Terminator looked to the young Sarah as she unbound the bandages that had been a hasty set of skin grafts to cover the now useless shoulder joints and hydraulics.

Seeing that it healed over decently she put some cream on it and bandaged her 'Dad' up and sat beside him with her head on the area that had no arm. The older Sarah sat away from the group and beside the kitchen sink watching as Kyle sat down across from the younger Sarah handing her a bottle of water. The aged Terminator turned its head and looked to its charge and reaching up and moving away a strand of stray hair from her face before looking to Kyle.

Turning her head the elder Sarah saw Fin turn on the bed as Erik's arm reached out in his sleep and brought her close. What was wrong with this world? Terminator as saviors? Terminators as heroes? They were killer machines and that's all there was to it, they tried to kill her, they killed Kyle and yet there he was just as she remembered him but with a different Sarah, a different her. Gazing to the front where John was sitting in the passenger seat beside the leather clad Terminator she saw John talking to the machine as if it was human. Turning to look out the window Sarah sneered as they drove in the night with the full moon hidden behind clouds.

She'd have to get off this crazy train and take her son with her, but under the watchful eyes of two Terminators… Sarah had to be very careful of what she was going to do.

* * *

Erik woke up a few hours later grunting in pain before he shifted his head a little opening his eyes to see Fin sleeping right up next to him. Moving his arm off of her Erik pushed himself to a seated position and looked around before pushing himself to a stand, his back was burning something fierce but he ignored it as the pain receptors shut down in his back and he went to the bathroom. Fin wasn't kidding when she said he would be pissing blood for a while, his kidney must have been hit good to have the bodily reaction he was having. Washing his hands he looked in the mirror and saw dried blood on the back of his neck and the underside of his jaw. Reaching for a cloth he wet it and began cleaning off the blood when he heard movement behind him. Turning he was met with an angry older Sarah with a gun to his face but before she could pull the trigger he dropped his hand over top of her and jammed a finger between the hammer and the frame.

"I don't know what I'm going on with you, but you need to stop this. None of us mean harm let alone the two other machines here."

"And why should I believe a machine of Skynet?" Sarah managed to bite out as she struggled to get the gun out of his grasp. In a flash Erik had the slide and the slide pin out of the gun as he dropped it into the sink before Sarah tried to punch him only for her wrist to be caught.

"Because this machine, isn't a machine of Skynet. I was born like you and made into a machine. You think I enjoy this? Do you really think that I would enjoy being torn apart and put back together like this? I am unable to die a natural death, I can't even commit suicide if I wanted to. So instead I decided to make something of myself and come back and fix things. I'm a warrior and have been, I was born October 31st, 1988. I will become a member of the Canadian Armed Forces and will survive the fall of the nuclear bombs, I am Lieutenant Commander Erik Matthew Destler of JTF2 of the Canadian Forces and I can tell you now that I will not stand by for this. Get yourself sorted Connor." Erik let the woman's arm go looking at the anger that was still in those eyes, stepping up and close Erik towered over her but she met his calm, cool gaze with her cooling rage filled eyes.

"Your daughter isn't your daughter…"

"No, not by natural birth. I took her in after I rescued her from endos that killed her mother and father in the war. She came back with me when I was ready to go back myself, she jumped into a transport that held the other two terminators that are with us now. John personally had them reprogrammed at my insistence.

They will not harm you, and if they even tried anything I can tell you now that I will not let anything happen to you. I made a promise to fix this. But I need you to trust me, can you do that?" Sarah stepped back against the wall of the small bathroom and into the shower stall.

"I…"

"Ms. Connor, as a career sailor and soldier. You can trust that I've spent all of my life protecting people. You are no exception, I will not let anything happen to either of you, your son, my daughter and Kyle Reese. I know what he means to the future and to you, but he is not your Kyle that you remember." Erik turned back to finish cleaning the blood of his neck and what he could see when an arm reached around him and grabbed the cloth from him wetting and putting some soap on it. Standing still Erik felt the cold cloth on his back gently rubbing away at the blood that was caked onto his back and on the areas that wasn't covered the bandages that was covering the majority of his back.

"I'm sorry…"

"I don't expect you to be sorry Connor, you have been dealing with this stuff and left in a bad situation with a kid on the way." Erik leaned over against the counter a bit before as Sarah continued to clean away the blood that she could see. Once she stopped Erik stood tall and turned around leaning against the small counter as Sarah took the cloth to the unbandaged areas of Erik's chest wiping away the dried blood. Once Erik was cleaned Sarah gave the cloth back to Erik before heading out of the bathroom shutting the door behind her.

Erik turned around and cleaned out the cloth and set it on a rack to dry before he walked out of the bathroom as well closing the door and looking around. Sarah had put herself back to the seat she was in before as Erik went to the front where John was asleep in his seat and his Terminator turned its head to look at Erik.

"Where are we at?"

"We are exiting California state lines and heading into Washington State lines now." The Terminator turned its head back to the road that had the RV lights off. Erik's HUD switched to night-vision, observing the road and the sign that they passed Erik blinked as his vision returned and he turned back into the RV and went to the stove and the plugged in kettle for hot water.

"Want something to drink Connor?"

The elder Sarah looked at Erik and nodded once, Erik set about making some coffee for the both of them and once it was done Erik leaned against the counter holding out a mug of black coffee to the elder Sarah who took it gratefully. Looking to the sleeping people at the table and Fin in the bed. Erik breathed in and let out a soft sigh before he brought the mug of coffee to his lips and took a sip swallowing the warm liquid, the Elder Sarah watched Erik and noted the very human emotion he was displaying before he turned to the mini-fridge opening it and pulling out some cut carrots and a cut apple. Looking at his bandaged hand Sarah watched as Erik took scissors to the bandages peeling them away from the open gaps staring at the machine underneath it.

Reaching for the Medical kit that Fin had left out on the counter he opened it and took out some butterfly stitch tape and set about closing the skin around and holding it place with a close fitted military glove with perforated palms and fingers. Looking at his left hand Erik opened and closed it a few times before picking up his mug of coffee watching the Elder Sarah watch him.

"You know for someone that doesn't like Terminators you are watching me fairly closely." Connor looked away and out the window again while out of the corner of her eye she watched Erik walk by and head back to the bed and sit on the end of it pulling the blanket over top of Fin before digging around for a shirt to pull on. Once he had it on and buttoned up he finished his coffee and set the mug on a little shelf with a grove meant for the mug and laid back on the bed closing his eyes with the last thing he saw was Conner looking at him with a soft gaze before she turned back to looking out the window.

Erik felt Fin curl up tight against him as he pulled the blanket over her and he allowed his brain to go to sleep as the lull of the road created ambiance for the soon to all sleeping people minus the driving Terminator and the other that was holding the younger Sarah and looking out the window to the road keeping an eye on the surroundings.

* * *

Everyone that could sleep and had been sleep were rudely awaken some time the next morning while all the blinds had been drawn along with blackout curtains to keep the darkness by jarring sways and bumps in the road that had someone yelp crashing to the floor and someone calling out.

"Dad!"

"Fin, let go of me for a sec, watch your leg, hey watch your… argh!" Everyone at that point turned their head to the sound of someone groaning as the one armed Terminator ripping open the curtains to allow in the bright light from the now high in the sky sun. Erik had rolled over onto his side holding his crotch area as the rest of the living people winced in pain. Fin had a horrified look on her face with her hands hovering over her dad as someone went through the small icebox and coming over. It was the elder Sarah who held out a towel wrapped bag of frozen vegetables to Fin who took it and pushed it into her dad's hand who took the makeshift pack to his crotch and groaned again.

"I'm so sorry Dad, I'm so sorry."

"If there was ever one thing that I wish I could ever shut off… it would be this. Jesus Christ… fuck that hurts." Kyle got up and moved to cup himself as the two Sarah's watched Erik struggle in pain while John came over and looked at the man.

"Gotta suck getting sacked by your own kid huh dude?" Fin turned to glower darkly at John while both Sarah's turned and griped at the same time.

"JOHN!" Both turned to look at each other before both had an evil look on their faces, John gulped quietly and started to edge back to his Terminator when the Elder Connor grabbed at her son and the two Sarah started giving John a verbal and informative tongue lashing about respect, leadership, humility, and so on. Kyle sat there leaning an arm on the table and resting his chin in it watching his future leader take the lashing and go red. The one armed Terminator looked to Kyle and cocked it's head to the side debating on if he could say something, in the end it got Kyle's attention.

"You should go and save your son."

"Excuse me?"

"The Kyle Reese that the older Sarah Connor remembers died for her is John Connor's father. You are in essence the same Kyle Reese, go and save him from his two mothers." The Terminator cracked the corner of its mouth into a half smile and looked out the window as Kyle snapped his head back to John. He looked at the young boy and really looked. He saw his features in John and he knew then. _Holy Shit_…

"Okay ladies, how about we ease on him eh, he's a kid and as a kid he's bound to make mistakes yeah?" Both Sarah Connors turned their attention to him and Kyle knew he was in serious trouble as they descended on him and for a soldier he shrank up onto the corner with his hands up by his head. The Terminator cocked its head and kept its mouth quiet watching the situation and recording it for future review.

Erik shifted enough and sat up with his back against the back wall with Fin sitting beside him looking really guilty, turning his not so pain filled eyes to Fin. Taking a hand off to the vegetable pack he took Fin's hand and squeezed it and gave her a smile.

"It's okay… it's okay… The drawback to being half machine is that there are parts of you that are more overly sensitive than others." Fin nodded and still looked guilty as she watched her dad put his hand back to help the other to gingerly adjust the pack. What a way to start the morning and they still hadn't addressed the bumpy road they were on until the RV stopped and John's Terminator turned and looked to passengers taking in the situation before speaking.

"We have arrived at the location."

"Perfect… okay everyone out!" Erik called out, John scrambled out first followed by the two Sarahs and a red in the face Kyle. Fin helped her dad and the two slowly made their way out of the RV with the other two Terminators. Grunting through the pain Erik gave the cold pack back to Fin and walked to the front of the group as everyone looked around the open patch of ground surrounded by nothing but trees and shrubbery. Erik went to what was a massive dead tree trunk and it looked like he was prying it open but it was actually a heavy hinged and from the sound of it a little stuck. But as the realistic looking bark opened and revealed a spotless metal tube and a switch on a wall and a hatch on the floor.

Hitting the switch on the wall a need groan echoed outside as the open space opened revealing a ramp leading down into what looked to be a deep underground bunker of some sort. Erik spun the hatch wheel and pulled the hatch lid up and climbed in as the others looked down the ramp. A few minutes later there was a deep groan from somewhere in the bunker before a row of floor lights sparked on and they lit up a patch. Fin looked to John's Terminator and told it to get back into the RV and follow them in and park the vehicles.

The slow trip down into the bunker took ten minutes of walking before the floor leveled out beneath them and the RV with the Jeep was parked off to the side beside some heavy duty military vehicles. Erik came out of the darkness of pulling a switch illuminating the rest of the bunker.

"Welcome to one of the Resistance bunkers I built just in case of the war. I was only ever able to get two built in my time here and raising Finley. This is the larger of the two bunkers and should house a couple hundred people but most of the rooms are used at the moment as storage. I only ever set up a handful of rooms for a just in case which this is." The group looked around seeing racks up racks of weapons, metal shelving units with canned food and military MRE's. There were areas that held bolts of cloth, a few heavy duty sewing machines. Crates of equipment and more as they explored the cavernous bunker. Erik hit something on a wall and a large groan echoed around them as the ramp doors slid shut above them.

"If you'll follow me and Finley, we'll show you your rooms and we'll leave you to get settled in and meet in the Galley or Mess Hall or whatever you want to call it. I need to check on our food stores and we'll get you all a hearty meal in you and discuss why you Sergeant Reese are here with a younger Sarah Connor." Erik had taken them to the living-quarters wing that lead off from the eating area. Finley ran ahead opening an door closing it after she went into it, Erik dropped John and the Elder Sarah off at one room with the Protector standing at the door at guard position as Erik took Kyle and the younger Sarah to a room across from John and his mother. Instead of the Terminator staying outside it followed the two in leaving the door partly open.

Sighing and grunting a little due to the pain he was in he turned and headed for his room one down from Finley's that had his name on it, opening the door he walked in and looked around at all the boxes of things he never unpacked for the shear sake of not wanting to. Going to a box marked towels and opening it, Erik pulled out a couple of black towels and rooted about for another box in which he pulled out a pair of black swim shorts.

Leaving the room Erik shut the door behind him to see Finley there with a sad look on her face, she followed her dad down the hall to a door marked sterile and they pushed the door open. Switching on the lights everything seemed to shine and brighten up the room before the bright haze cleared up a bit for them. Erik put his bundle down on a stainless steel work table as Fin went to a tall black clothed object and pulled the cloth off revealing a tank of some sort with tubes and cables coming out of it. Going to a work station Erik pulled the black cloths off revealing computers and scientific equipment and chemicals, pushing buttons Erik turned on the machines and watched as the computer far more advanced for its age powered and came to life with a command prompt that was ready for orders.

"We'll do this all after dinner Fin, I want to get this warmed up so it's an overnight thing, you don't need to stay for it and you can sleep through the night. I don't need you having nightmares like the last time I had to do this." Fin shook her head and continued with the preparations. It took roughly twenty minutes to prepare everything that that they needed to do after they were done they left the lab and headed for the kitchen and began making dinner for six people. It was a quick affair that lead to Erik making fresh meatballs and pasta with garlic bread and two pitchers of real iced tea.

Setting up the food onto steel camping plates Erik and Fin took the food, cutlery and drinks to a mess hall style table and set it down while the smell of food drew out the other inhabitants to the father and daughter duo. Fin looked to her dad and grinned like a cat.

"Your cooking always had people coming out of the woodworks and I have to say that it's always nice to see the hungry look in people's eyes and the drool coming out of the corner of people's mouths."

"You shouldn't talk Fin, you have that look in your eye since I pulled the ground beef and started this all." Erik chuckled and started dishing out food before going over to the island stove area and set his food down and covered it before he started cleaning and washing dishes. As the others ate people had questions for Fin and for Erik who called out from where he was washing some sort of item in one of the large double sinks of the kitchen.

After Erik had finished with the dishes, drying them and putting them away Erik moved to his food and took it back to the group and sat down beside Fin reaching for one of the pieces of garlic bread and he begun to eat. He ate with gusto as the Elder Sarah watched the hybrid with interest before speaking up.

"What exactly happened to you? How did Skynet turn you into a Terminator?" Everyone turned to look at Erik as he finished his mouthful of spaghetti, putting his fork down and cleaning his mouth with a cloth that he had brought over with him. Leaning his forearms on the metal surface and edge of the table he looked around and looked to Fin, she never knew how it happened and he never told her, maybe it was time he did.

"Back in 2015 things with technology began to spike quite quickly and it was pretty crazy. The stuff that you will see before the bombs fell in my time was beyond anything you could imagine in your dreams right now. Phones become so small that could leave them in your pocket and all you need is a little headset and you would be surprised with what you could do with it.

Computers are the same way it all became small and more streamlined. I learned very quickly that technology advancement in the medical field could lead to great things with machine prosthetics. What was completely unexpected was the US Government underneath DARPA that developed a program and an Artificial Intelligence it created for military asset control and network maintenance to prevent any outside government threat; I can tell you in 2015 computer cyber-attacks became a very big thing going into 2016 and in 2017 it really hit hard when the AI program was made public and Skynet struck out against everyone.

I was in the middle of… I think the Transylvanian Mountains, somewhere in Carpathians headed for a military base that was set up by Russian Spetznaz. At the time in 2014 going forwards the Russians and the Ukrainians had been powder keg of hostility that led to the Annexing of Crimea and the taking of a Ukrainian Navy base in the Black Sea. With the Black Sea all but now controlled by the Russians and the growing tensions the Russians started taking military gear by boat to Romania to hit the Ukraine from that side.

It was a dangerous run but us in the Canadian Military knew that if we didn't do something we would be looking at battle that the Ukrainians would not win and a war. The United States were already being looked at by the Russians as a threat as were the Canadians but for a different reason. We didn't have assets that could benefit the US Military that took themselves there. It was dangerous but the Canadian Navy sent three or four ships into the area to 'Bolster' the US operations to help train and arm the Ukrainians.

My unit were dropped in Budapest and we took a couple of old vehicles as far as we could before we trekked in by foot. We needed to keep as low of a profile as we trekked the mountains and we came by the Spetznaz base when we heard Russian cries. Running in we made it and watched in horror with the Russians as Moscow, Beijing, North Korea, Washington, Ottawa, London were wiped out in the first wave. All the Capitals of the countries were wiped down, the Russians thought it was the US until we watched a live Satellite feed that was being pumped to every single signal in the world and the White House were the President was giving a live speech. What surprised us the most the hacked in scrawl in whatever digital writing font or Skynet itself telling us that it was sick of the human race fighting, it was sick of the world being destroyed by greed, people that had no care for each other and the only way it saw fit was to wipe humanity out. If we couldn't settle our problems and make peace with each other it was going kill us all because we didn't deserve to live.

Shortly after October in 2017 we saw the first of the machines. Those of us that survived the bombs such as ourselves and the Spetznaz unit we took the fight to the machines. We heard the first of the human camps meant for extermination and we broke into that fairly easy. The machines then were pretty crappy all blocky and everything was exposed so it make target practice pretty easy. It made weapons gathering easy too, they were still using our projectile based weapons so we always gather ammo and spare parts. However in a matter of weeks and months it started changing. Skynet was adapting fast and the machines coming out where becoming armoured, heavier hitting and the weapons… started to change too. We lost three guys during a nighttime raid to get some supplies and to get some people out. The plasma rifle then wasn't as refined as it was when Kyle and I left, it was bulky, required a massive power pack." Everyone's attention was glued to Erik as he looked around and told his story, out of everyone here not even the two other machines had as much knowledge and it was amazing even almost movie like with how Erik was explaining things. Filling up his metal mug with some Iced Tea he took a sip or two before putting it down and continuing.

"The damage those things put out, it blew people apart, but it also heated the Terminators up pretty good. It was why the weaker units were used and the armoured ones were put in front of it in staggered formation to prevent us from getting a clear clean shot. We couldn't keep it up and hide people or get them, we lost too many of us that eventually we were all caught and or killed. Me? I was captured and because one of the most fit still left of the two units, they took me and tested and found out whatever diet I had consumed when I was younger gave me a good protection against radiation and they wanted to see why. They ended up cutting me up, subjecting me to shit I won't even get into and exposure to radiation before I actually started getting sick. I lost time of how long was there under Skynet's thumb. Eventually the T-600s and T-800's were created and I guess in between making the perfect killing machine and infiltrators it needed to find a way of making the ultimate human killer that could mix into the population and pass every function of human life. There have been a few attempts and most of them have succeeded and yet failed at the same time. I think I was the last attempt as they build a brand new skeleton and after that I remember bits and pieces of surgery, pain and time that I couldn't tell at all.

I woke up one more feeling very weird, like my body wasn't my own, I think for the first two or three weeks I was puking up blood, I was pissing I have no idea what. I went through so many different phases that eventually I got better and I could eat without passing hydraulic fluid or having an internal seizure because of an electrical short. I think was another month or so before they started testing me. I was compelled to follow the commands because of the controlling chip that was implanted at the back of my skull. Most of the control was under my physical command. I could almost everything a T-800 could do in terms of strength and power, the problem was the heart and adjustments were made until my heart exceptionally powerful. The electrical output of the human heart is a lot, but when you modify it and strengthen it it's like an organic nuclear power cell. As a safety and redundant in case my heart ever gave out I was given a power cell of a T-800.

Eventually they put me through human socialization trials with the prisoners they had; men, women, children and animals. I passed each and every one of them because Skynet allowed me to use my own skills and because I'm a human soldier. It allowed me do everything but tell them that I was a machine, however one of the tests that I did not enjoy even though I did physically was to get intimate with any of the female prisoners. I did, I'm still fully functioning and I was able to father a child or at least get a woman pregnant before Skynet had her killed." Erik picked up his mug again and took a swig of his drink before he continued on, "It was during a raid by one of Connor's men that I fought against everything that Skynet had programmed into me and I tore the controlling networking chip out and I made a book for it. However in protecting some people I was buried and I had to dig myself out after the base was leveled. I survived and I took what clothes I could and whatever else I could salvage and I went off. I think a month or two had passed and I came across another prison camp and liberated it, I did that over the course of a year before I rescued a group of children being bared upon by a group of endos and I took the shots before destroying them. The kids saw that I was a Terminator but I used my body to protect them so they took whatever scraps of cloth they could find to hide my back until John Conner saw me and used his coat to cover me and he got me out and he helped patch me up. They kids were protective of me and they didn't want 'their' protector destroyed; the youth of children and their ability to see what is what instead of fear everything.

It took me a while to recover enough to walk around without a long sleeved shirt and no face bandage where Connor had taken time to sew up but eventually I was picked up as an unofficial 'consultant' in a manner, but I would be a long range sniper for missions that John required for dangerous missions. John didn't know the extent of my past, never told him even at the end, just told him I was experimented on and made into this thing and I wanted to get back at them and get back at them I did. So now it was during a mission that I came across a family that was backed into a corner and they had a small girl with them. I broke away from the main group as I had already finished my part. However I was too slow and I ended up not being able to save the parents from the endos, the girl however… I was able to get to her and I ended up having half my face almost ripped off in the fight to save the girl. I had to take off with her back to base and Connor caught me before I ended up getting shot on site. Since then that little girl hasn't been able to let me go and she still hasn't." Erik finished his story and looked at Fin as did everyone else the young teen blushed and tucked her head against Erik's chest to hide the blush that she had that had crept up the back of her neck and the tips of her ears when she realized where the story was going when he got to her.

"Wow…" Kyle said look Erik who wrapped an arm around Fin holding her to him resting his chin on the top of her head. He never knew that Erik had been that extensively worked on, he just thought that Erik was just another Terminator like some of the rogue ones that he had come across and was pissed at. To think that a human had been through so much that they wanted to continue to fight, that was a drive and that was will to live and survive to see a better day.

The younger Sarah looked at the father and daughter before turning to look at the old Terminator that had protected her as a child and raised her, there was a look of proudness in the machine's eyes. It was a machine yes and yet it knew the value of human life that the other Terminator did not know just yet, maybe they could flip the switch like her Terminator. Speaking of the Terminators both looked shot quite a bit and that would mean they would need to get the rounds out of the Terminators so that they could continue to pass as human for the foreseeable future.

"You know one thing I don't know yet… your name..."

"No, I didn't give it to you… I'm Lieutenant-Commander Erik Matthew Destler of the Canadian Forces JTF2 Unit. Or I was… am…" Erik chuckled and shook head trying to keep all the things organized in his mind with all the time travel stuff. There were two of him running around, but the other him was just a kid where as he himself now was an older man with some serious 'issues'. Erik just hoped that the other him in this timeline would never have to do through what he had.

"You're actual military?"

"Yes."

"I heard stories from some of the older guys when I was growing up that the military was strong and they could almost out live the wars." Erik raised an eyebrow and as he remembered the commercials on TV as he was growing up about the military, he even went back in his mind looking through old memories of his basic training, his trade training and then his service time before he transferred to JTF2 and its training and his time up until he got changed into the machine he as now.

"We are 'beasts' as the nicknames goes. It depends entirely on the branch you are with and the unit. Each has their own naming and nicknames. The Marines are known as Jar Heads, the Navy take your pick unless you are a SEAL. Those are some hardcore mother fuckers. You have the Deltas, the Green Berets. Canada had the Spec-Ops units, CSOR, JTF2 and a couple of other units. Canada's special forces however you will never hear stories about them. We are known as Urban Myths, not a lot of people know of what the Canadian Special Forces or if we really do exist at all." Erik said picking up his mug and draining the rest of his drink.

"Well, I'm sure this has been an exciting time for you and you all want your sleep and rest without the rocking of a vehicle under you. I left a sink with hot soaking water and soak for these dishes, if you don't mind putting them in there to soak for the evening I'll wash them in the morning." Erik let go of Fin and stood picking up his things and taking them to the sink and quietly placing it within the water before leaving the eating area. The others watched Erik and turned to Finley before she too got up and put her things away leaving the others behind following after her dad.

The younger Sarah watched the two and noted the change in body tones between the father daughter duo before getting up and putting her things away before telling Kyle and the others that she would catch up with them later. Chasing after the duo Sarah saw a door close at an end of a hall and went for it, as she got closer she snuck up to the door and listened to Erik speak quietly and grunt in pain.

"Easy, easy Fin. I know you don't like this but it has to be done. I've lost enough blood getting away from that T-1000."

"I know dad but…"

"But yes, it's an entire stripping and regrowth. I don't think my kidney will survive from that attack and the body is already fighting an infection somewhere in the body. I can't pin point it, but this is the only way to do it and make sure that I remain healthy enough. Besides the last time I had to do this was when you were nine it's not like I enjoyed you being there to witness this whole thing…" Sarah pushed the door opened a bit more and saw Fin at Erik's back while he was standing at a computer typing in some things while Fin was taking apart the stitches holding his back together.

Grunting again Fin put the scissors down and picked up something and pushed against Erik's back as the man hissed snapping his head to look over his shoulder.

"What the hell was that?"

"That would be the needle with the genetic markers to have your kidney replaced."

Erik grunted before Fin patted her dad's shoulder and stepped away, Sarah's eyes widened as the door suddenly opened and she crashed to the ground. Erik looked over his shoulder and cocked his head to the side as he stood shirtless the pants behind held up by a belt up sitting on his hips.

"Whoa…"

"Yes Sarah? God this is going to get weird, we need to organize who is who between you and the elder Sarah Connor. Maybe we should call the other one Connor and the younger one Sarah?" Erik looked to Fin who just looked between the two of them and raised her hands up in a surrender.

"Don't look at me, I'm just as confused as to all of this. I can't tell any of you what to do." Fin turned away and went to go set up another tank of chemicals that was on one side of the while another set of chemicals in a pink and blood like solution sat ready.

"Okay, you know what, we can address that elephant in the room later. For the time being as you are here in the room you are Sarah and I will address you as such; now what I would like to know is why you followed me and Fin." Erik looked on as the younger Sarah looked around while avoiding his gaze spoke up softly.

"I was wondering if there was a way for us to reset the switch on John's Terminator and a place for us to pull the bullets out of the two Terminators and patch them up. Maybe even a way to put an arm on my dad."

"Your Terminator is your father?" Sarah nodded rubbing a hand up and down her arm at the colder temperature of the work space and lab. Erik turned away and picked up his swim shorts and went to a small curtained area before coming out moments later with pants folded over his arm and the shoes had been left behind along with the socks in them. Sarah eyed the man and saw all manner of bruises, cuts and scrapes along Erik's body and how fit the man was despite the greys she saw on his temples and throughout his hair.

"He is, he protected me as a child and he raised me even thought I didn't want this world. But… he looked after me and he is the reason why I'm still alive. The John that you know is a machine, he followed us through time and it was only before I clung to dad that he was able to time travel with us. We patched him up as best as we could after he lost his arm."

Erik nodded and looked to the door where the younger John Connor was, he looked back and pointed to one of the seats by a computer, Fin rolled over another chair and sat it in front of the computer that Erik had previously been standing at.

"Well looks like you can keep my daughter company, the last time she saw this she had nightmares." Erik put his pants down on a table and went to the main central tank and with a sudden cocking of his head his breathing stopped. It was unnerving for Fin to see as she watched her dad climb up a ladder and lower himself sinking into the tank. There were some bubbles and when Fin hit a button on the keyboard the liquid changed as Erik put a hand on the wall of the tank towards her. Fin went over and put her hand on her Dad's and gave him a brave smile as he started to float in the liquid before watching as the flesh was stripped away from the hand and Fin had to turn away from the sight as tears stained her eyes. Erik lowered his hand and closed his eyes as the flesh was slowly stripped away from his body revealing the machine beneath. One of the tanks beside the main tank started to filter in some sort of solution that increased the rapid onset of flesh degradation.

Fin came back to the chair and looked away from the tank and fiddled with something while Sarah watched the process and she knew why how Fin could have nightmares of the situation. It was watching the person you loved most melting and becoming nothing but not entirely. The flesh from Erik's face disappeared and Sarah was not ready for the machine underneath it all. There were segments of muscle still attached to the machine but it was dissolved like the skin was and when Sarah got up she went over and had a closer look seeing that the organs and the organics that remained had a protective covering it was like the solution that was being pumped in knew to protect the special organs and with that Sarah turned away from the unique machine heading back to Fin and pulling up the chair beside her as she had her back to her dad and what was happening to him.

"So… I can understand why you would have nightmares over what is happening to him. How many times had this happened to him?" Fin looked up to Sarah and held up a hand with a single finger raise before she closed her hands around the piece of metal that had a military style ball chain running through it. Fin opened her hand a little and took in all the dings, all the scratches and all the lettering and information in the metal. Sarah looked at the piece of metal and in her teaching remembered the different military style dog tags, the ones in Fin's hand were Canadian that would make Erik a Canadian. Looking up to the now fully unskinned man in the tank Sarah shuttered to think of how the man would be able to cope with what was happening to him. A hiss from a pump and some other liquid was pumped into the tank causing Fin to cringe.

"The first time I saw it… Dad was still awake, he trying to communicate to me but he had no lips, he had no tongue and no eyes… just the machine pieces moving and tracking all my movements and a jaw that was moving but made no sounds. He had no ears and yet he heard me crying as his head swiveled in the tank. He had put his hands on the glass while he was floating and I could do nothing but scream and cry. It was so nightmare worthy that it took him a day to find me in this bunker after he was finished and it looked like he hadn't bothered to put any clothes on at all and he was cold that much I could tell because he sat down beside me shivering in nothing but his swim shorts." Sarah shifted closer looking up when she saw a twitch of movement in the tank before it settled.

"I'm sorry… I can't imagine what that must have been like for you… when I saw my 'dad' and he was missing the flesh off his arm, I didn't know what to think. I was scared yeah but he protected and still does to this day… for a machine he has done quite a bit and I love him all the more for it." Sarah smiled softly putting a hand on Fin's shoulder and squeezing it lightly. There was movement behind them as the one armed Terminator gently pushed the door opened and shut it behind it.

"The others have retired for the evening and I went looking for you." The Terminator looked to the tank and walked over to it and stared at it putting its remaining hand up on the glass of the tank. The eyes of the machine in the tank glowed to life and swiveled to look at the aged T-800. Putting a hand on the glass it looked at the machine and cocked its head for a moment before turning its head and pointed to a closet with a lock on it. The machine's eyes faded to black as the T-800 moved to the closet and spotted a key hanging on the side. Sarah left Fin in her seat and got up walking over, the elder looking machine looked down as Sarah took the key from its spot and fit it into the lock as Fin turned to look over. Sarah turned the key and pulled the lock away and set it on a table beside the cabinet. Opening it Sarah saw spare parts to the T-800, they looked like they had been machined and put together by hand. Taking a full arm assembly out with two hands Sarah was helped by her dad as they set it down.

Fin had come over still with her back to the tank and the nightmarish vision that was her dad, she saw what Sarah looked like she was going to cry and she realized that she was going to help Sarah and put her own dad back together. Reaching into the closet Fin pulled out a shoulder assembly and some tubing and a bottle of fluid out, walking over to the table Fin saw Sarah help her Terminator of its jacket and its shirt as Fin looked around for tools, gloves and surgical equipment, unknown to the three of them Erik's eyes glowed to life and if he could have smiled he would have. Fin wouldn't haven't to suffer the night watching his crippled form and with that his eyes powered down as he went to sleep to ride out the rest of what was happening to him.

Sarah pulled on some gloves and picked up a pair of pliers as Fin turned on a surgical light and aimed it at the Terminators chest as Sarah dug into a hole to pry out one of the metal slugs that had formerly been a bullet. Fin picked up a set of plyers as well and begun helping Sarah dig rounds out of the Terminator's torso and back. It took a couple several hours of solid work to get all the slugs out, clean the wounds and bandage everything up before they decided to tackle the shoulder.

The Terminator walked them through the process of repairing him and four hours later Fin was sleeping soundly on a cot of blankets by Erik's tank while Sarah was laid out on a cot beside the worktable while the Terminator finished with the adjustments to its new arm that was hooked up and now functioning. As the machine worked it turned long enough to look over and see the flesh, muscle and hair developing in its final stages, hair was starting to sprout on Erik's head with the flesh now starting to form and resemble the man that the machine was. Turning back to its job of fixing itself the machine put down the pliers in its hand and rose up the other arm checking its fine-tuned movements before lowering its arm down before looking at Sarah seeing the blanket that had been covering had started to fall. Getting up and going over to her the Terminator moved the blanket and placed the blanket back over Sarah.

Going over to the tank and looking at the reforming Erik, the machine stared at the man watching the process taking in all the details of what was happening from the forming of the eyes that covered the machine to the skin, the muscles, the hair and the forming of the scars that adorned the hybrids body. For a Terminator creation made by Skynet it made no sense as to why the skin was flawed and damaged. As the machine stood there until early morning it helped the Hybrid out of the tank and towel off. They kept as quiet as possible as to avoid waking up Sarah and Fin, once Erik had taken a shower and changed he had come back in and went to the Terminator that had sat back down watching the two sleeping girls.

Standing beside the machine Erik looked down and quietly spoke the machine that turned its gaze to look at him, "Give me a couple of hours and I'll help you re-flesh that arm, we need to make you look as human as possible and I'm sure Sarah would like to be to get a hug from you with two arms now instead of two no?"

"She does not know this and I can no show her this, she must never know how much she had changed this machine. I must remain as much of a machine as I can, I am becoming too much human like and with having my arm taken away by John Connor it has served as a reminder that I am not any more human than you are a machine. Learning what it means to value life and what it means to raise and protect someone that isn't our creator is difficult for me."

"Part of that blame can be set on my shoulders, I had John Connor reset your chip to learn and for you to be able to raise a child. It's because of me that you are the way you are… but you should not do what you are doing if you truly care for Sarah as you say you do, let her know. You are all that she has and like Fin, she will not want to let you go. No father wants to lose their child and no child wants to lose their parent… I'm curious to know what you've called yourself, I can't not call you nothing."

"My name… Sarah has always called me dad or pops… I have no name."

"Has there never been a name that she's called you when the two of you were out in public?"

"She has called me Daniel." The machine said looking at Erik, for once the machine that was Sarah's father looked weary, tired and for certain; aged. Erik nodded and put a hand a hand on the machine's shoulder.

"Daniel it is then, welcome to the human race. Now if Skynet could understand the meaning of life and the value that you have learned. It's why machines should be set to learn and those that end up going rogue are the machines of the future."

Erik turned his head as he heard Fin shift in her sleep, pulling his hand away from Daniel's shoulder he walked over to Fin and knelt down beside the girl and smiled softly at her as she slowly started to awaken. Looking at his watch he saw that was coming up on 8am.

Fin opened her eyes and saw Erik sitting on the ground watching her and brushing away a strand of hair from her face giving her a smile. Before Erik knew it Fin had her arms wrapped around Erik's neck crying happily into his neck as he wrapped his arms around and hugging her close.

"Hey little one, shhh shhh it's okay I have you." Sitting there Erik held his baby girl and realized that Fin still couldn't ever get the image of Erik in the tank out of her head. Kissing the top of her head Erik moved to sit on the bed pulling the teen onto his lap as he wrapped his arms around her rocking her back and forth as she cried in his arms.

Waking up to hearing sniffling Sarah cracked her eyes open and saw Fin on Erik hugging him for all it was worth, when she was able to fully blink the sleep away from her eyes she looked to her side and saw her Terminator look at her sadly, but happily as well.

"Pops?"

"Sarah… I have watched you grow up from being a young girl who saw her family brutally murdered. I have raised you to the best of my ability while having learned the good of humanity and the bad, I have become so much more than a machine that I have had to isolate and remind myself that I am a Terminator and not human, but you… there are many things that I cannot do and so much that I can. If I can help save this world, I would give it all up for you. I am a Terminator, a machine of Skynet… however I am your father and Skynet has made big mistake trying to wipe you all out." Sarah sat up and saw her Terminator look at its uncovered arm and hold out a hand to Sarah who set her hand into the machine's before wrapping and arm around the neck of the Terminator and hugging it.

"I know, and I love you."

"I love you too Sarah." Erik watched the two and grinned nudging Fin lightly who looked up wiping away at the tears at her eyes watching the machine and human live in peace. Looking down to Fin, Erik kissed the top of her head against and held her as she calmed down. The somber mood was lightened by the growling of Erik's stomach that seemed to echo in the quiet of the room and everyone turning to look at the hybrid.

"Okay… time for breakfast." Fin climbed off Erik with the man pushing himself to a stand the occupants of the lab filed out as Daniel looked at Erik and nodded who in returned gave a smile and nod. Heading to the Galley the group set about making food for breakfast and the smell of bacon called the rest of the human inhabitants. While waiting for the bacon to finish baking Erik looked to the sink and noticed that the dishes were already done from last night and stacked in a pile and ready to be used.

Dishing eggs, bacon, sausage and toast out to those that could eat Erik sat down with the elder Sarah sitting in front of him with Fin sitting beside him and the younger Sarah and Kyle sitting down a little way quietly talking to each other.

"Morning Sarah, you know we are going to have to come up with a way of separating you and your younger self." The elder Sarah turned and looked at the younger one before looking to Erik as he bit off a piece of bacon and chewed his food. "I was thinking of just calling you Connor, it's easier to separate the two of you that way and has a bit more of an aggressive ton to it, much like you are right now." The woman stared at him with her eyes narrowing while Erik's flared red for a moment behind the blue irises and he gave her a grin, "see what I mean?"

With a grumble the woman nodded and accepted what Erik had said and went about pushing the food around on her plate a little bit before forcing herself to eat. Fin looked at her dad and saw the man look at him with a shit eating grin before he lifted a piece of toast to his mouth taking a bite. Daniel looked to leather clad biking Terminator before looking to John who was trying to teach it some things, knowing that the machine wouldn't be able to override the read and write directive of the chip Erik finished eating and looked to Fin before standing and putting his things into the sink full of hot water. Heading over to the Terminator Erik looked to John and the machine speaking quietly to the both of them, moments later John nodded and looked his mom then his food as the machine stood up following Erik.

Connor stood up after putting her dishes away and took off after the two not trusting them, she followed into the lab as the Terminator pulled its jacket off along with the T-shirt; both were riddled with holes as Erik took them and had a look through the holes before putting them down on the work table where a pair of blue latex gloves sat beside the cleaned tools that were used last night along with a medical kit.

"We are going to do two fold things here, first we need to make sure that you remain as human as possible, you would become useless to us if you can't pass got it?"

"Affirmative."

"Second we are going to reset your switch, we need you to be able to learn. The more you learn the more you will be able to protect John Connor."

"Affirmative."

"And we need to give you a personality… there is only so much I can take for automatic responses. And don't answer me back…" Erik sat down on a wheeled stool pulling on the gloves as the Terminator sat down on a solid stool as well, and so began the process of removing the bullets from the Terminator's back. Connor had walked over and watched as Erik progressed fairly quickly through the bullet removal even going so far as to help Erik with gauze and medical tape. Connor was still skeptical of the machine but it sat there and let the hybrid do its thing. Once Erik had finished with the bullet removal Erik went to get a few more things including a powered drill with an array of screwdriver heads.

Setting down the tools Erik picked up a scalpel and cut into the head of the Terminator where the chip access port is and lifted the flap up and holding it in place with a scissor clamp. Connor watched with a morbid curiosity as Erik wiped away the blood on the metal and picked up the drill and putting a bit into the drill and unscrewing the port access cover. It took moments of work and soon the chip was pulled out as Erik looked over the chip and flipped the pin switch before putting it back in and closing up everything up and putting it back together including a quick staple job of the scalp and hair.

Once the machine was up and away after putting its shirt back on it looked between the two before leaving Erik and Connor alone. Erik cleaned up the mess and looked at the bullets he pulled from the machine when Connor came up beside him looking at the garbage.

"Why do you do this?"

"Because I feel I must, believe or not Sarah… life doesn't end because shit happens. Life doesn't stop just because we lost the ones we love, we enter a war or a battlefield. When you get there and you have to fight, lock all of that fear away into a box, lock away anything that might make you vulnerable when on the field. Not every day is spent on the field though. There are days that you sit next to your brother, your sister, your comrades and all you do is have a beer in hand and you enjoy the company." Erik dumped the garbage away and pulled his gloves off tossing them as well before going to scrub down his hands and arms. Once he was done he looked to Connor he who walked up to him and stood in his personal bubble.

"Why did you feel the need to pick me up and carry me out of the mental hospital?"

"Because believe it or not I still protect people and with your fear of the Terminator that just left. You've had a bad go at thing and I'm not about to let John's only mother get the shit end of the stick and die or be continued to be housed in a nut bin. You mean a lot more than you think you do Sarah." Connor stepped right up to Erik and put a hand on his chest as he cocked his head watching her.

"Your heart… it's real…" Erik's eyebrows rose into his hairline as he nodded swallowing once, glancing to the door he hoped to god that no one including Fin would walk through that door.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to know how much of man you really are."

"Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"Lady, I don't know about you but there are lines that I do not cross. I doubt that you are even in any condition to be asking me that of me. What you are asking for…"

"I know what I am asking for." Erik put his hand on Connor's and held it before he pulled it away from his chest holding her hand with both of his giving Connor a soft smile.

"Maybe once things had cooled down for you we could possibly explore this, but right now my mission is to ensure your son survives, and that the T-1000 don't get to him or anyone else. That is my primary mission… not as a machine but because it is the right thing for me to do and because I don't want the younger me to have to suffer what I have been through." Putting her hand down at her side he put a hand on her shoulder and started for the door when his wrist was grabbed and his head cranked to look over his shoulder.

"Thank you…"

"I'm a soldier and sailor and ultimately it's my duty to protect the innocent." Connor let go of his wrist and crossed her arms over her chest as Erik headed out of the lab, as soon as he was out and he had gone to his room he sat on the edge of his bed with his elbows on his knees before hanging his head. What had happened was much too close for his liking and he was not about to get intimate with the elder Sarah Connor. This whole situation was more than he could have anticipated and that included now an evil future machine John Connor and a T-1000 out there to kill them. They would have to figure out what to do, they had already taken a very long drive to get to this location but if they hid here the chances that the T-1000 and if the Machine John Connor teamed up they could find them.

They needed to get out of the continent, he would have to arrange for transport to Europe. The Americas were large enough to hide in plain sight and it was possible for them to live in the situation they currently were in, but this bunker was meant for a short pit stop not a long term situation.

Flopping back onto his bed Erik looked to the ceiling and closed his eyes running a hand over his face, he would need to contact some of the contacts that he kept on retainer for the situation and was able to convince of the future and its. They would be able to stay here until the fresh food is finished but after that they would need to leave and establish new lives and get John Connor into some lessons of survival and how to lead. If Erik could pull it off maybe he could get John sent to a military and leadership school, he would have to talk to the one contact that had a foot into the world.

Hearing a knock and a click, Erik sat up and saw Sarah walk in with her arms wrapped around herself as she sat down beside him. Sitting properly on the bed Erik watched Sarah lean into his shoulder feeling her shudder and listening to her sniffle before crying.

"Sarah?"

"Did you know?"

"Know what?" Sarah looked at Erik with tears coming down her face, he leaned over and brushed them away with a thumb as she leaned into his touch. What was it with the Connor women and them coming to him? He was a damn machine and if Kyle and the younger Sarah didn't get to it there would be no John Connor. Cocking his head to the side Erik's brain processed the thoughts in his head before he looked to Sarah and his eyes widened.

_John was there to prevent his birth, but not by the way of murder… no he was going torture his mother into not having a child, he would make sure that Kyle and Sarah sleep together… I'm the next best thing to preventing that is John had already been taken prior to the mission. Jesus Christ. The time jumping has already screwed up and either made the future jump the way it already had, or it was going to be an even bigger problem if they left the bunker._

Erik saw the younger Sarah cling to him as another knock on the door revealed Kyle, making a decision Erik waved in Kyle who shut the door behind him.

"How much do you know of your mission here Kyle?"

"I was sent back to save and protect Sarah Connor." Kyle looked at him weirdly as Erik gently led Sarah to Kyle and handing her off to him.

"She's your to protect, love and cherish, whatever you do make sure that you follow that. John is back not to kill you or her. He's here to prevent his birth by sending someone else in the stead of his father."

"Huh? Who's his father?" Erik stepped back and looked at Kyle and Sarah seeing where John got the features from, he was a good mix of the two and Erik let his face melt into a smile before nodding once to Kyle. Kyle's eyes grew wide and he knew now why the elder Sarah Connor was talking to him and why she looked so sad, and he remembered finally the incident on the RV.

"I'm…. I'm actually John's father?"

"You are, prior to his change he sent you back to ensure his birth. The fact that Skynet has turned him and he's crossing time to get at the both of you. It's not just to kill you, but to torture the both of you so much that he doesn't get born. I'm here to save the younger John Connor and if this was John's plan he would have it done and ensured that there would be another man for Sarah to go to. Me. The elder Sarah already came to me and wanted to know how much of me still was a man, I told her no." Kyle held onto the Sarah that looked at him before glancing to Erik.

"We have to try and fix this situation, but in order for that to happen we need a John Connor to be born from the two of you, it's the only way that we can stabilize the future and ensure that we live. At this point we need to live under the assumption that John under Skynet's orders is here to start Judgement Day early. The point of you all time jumping was to find me, it would make sense and it would also mean that John is here in this time as well. I don't know if he knows of this location so we may have to leave here in about a week or as soon as we hear something." Kyle nodded and placed a kiss on the top of Sarah's head as she gripped at the man, Kyle led Sarah out of the room as Erik stood there with his hands in his pockets, he need to find a solution to this and make sure that the bombs did not drop especially if they drop early.

* * *

Walking out of the room and heading to a room with radios Erik stepped up to it and powered the machines up picking up a hand set. Pushing in some numbers into the screen Erik listened for a ton and a hiss that came through the speakers before a voice on the other end spoke up. It was a strong European accent and German in nature and male.

_"Ja ,was ist das? "_

"Ich bin es, ich brache ein Flugzeug aus dem Land"

_"Eh, warum?"_

"Wir haben ein sehr großes Problem, sind die Atomsprengköpfe nicht sicher."

_"Wie schlecht redden wir?"_

"Schlecht."

_"Okay, wir haben ein Flugzeug bereit. Ich werde mit den anderen zu sprechen"_

"Danke."

_"Keine Sorge."_ The radio went dead and Erik stepped away from the machine after cranking the volume up so when the man came back he would be able to hear it, in the meantime he needed to prepare for the worst case and the best case scenario. Walking into the main area John was sitting with the Uncle Bob unit and Daniel watching as they were teaching the machine, Fin was washing dishes with Connor while Kyle and Sarah were not present. Erik had a good idea where the two were before his machine hearing heard a very faint groan causing a grin to come across Erik's face.

* * *

It was a quiet and easy routine for the following week, each person or tiny group had their own thing that they wanted to do. Erik and Fin practice hand to hand in the early mornings in the gym area, as Erik, Fin and Sarah took turns cooking meals. Connor slowly got used to Daniel and Uncle Bob while John took pleasure and teaching his Terminator everything he knew including the value of life. That was something that Daniel could not do for his fellow Terminator that was something that had to be learned on its own.

In the afternoons Erik could be found sitting in the room with the radio with his feet kicked up on the table a book in hand and strangely for a machine a pair of reading glasses or what looked to be reading glasses. Fin had told the others when they brought him coffee or tea that he liked to remain as human as possible and there were times that Erik said his eyes were getting tired even though he and the others knew it was just for show, however to Connor and Fin it made Erik look more handsome and Fin would bug Erik about it that he was gardening more attention from the elder Sarah. The elder Sarah Connor spent more and more time in the quiet atmosphere around Erik as he read his extremely well worn paperback novel and leaning back in the office chair and his boot clad feet on the work table.

The two sat in comfortable silence for the week until one day the radio went off scaring Connor, Erik had looked over the top of his glasses and listened to the German voice on the other end before he picked up the hand radio depressing the side button and speaking to whomever was on the other end. Connor was trying to calm her racing heart and by the time the exchange was done Erik put down the device and shut the radio off and the power source to the machines. Closing his book and holding it in one hand he looked to Connor and led her out of the room. Going into the main space he called out bring over Kyle and Sarah who were sparing with the now whole Daniel and Uncle Bob. Fin had peeked her head out of the bathroom with a towel covering her and John looked up from his little hacking computer.

"Clean up, pack up your things we are leaving the country, we need to be away from the drop zone until it's necessary for us to come back here. Fin, you know the drill show the others while I prepare this place for close down." Fin nodded and ran back into the bathroom, Kyle and Sarah went to take quick showers before the water systems were shut down and protected. The outside collection sources were turned back on for gathering and cleaning purposes. By the end of the day they had everything and they walked out of the bunker with the bags on their bag to an awaiting container truck with a modified cargo container.

Climbing into the vehicle Erik was the last one to close up and give their driver payments. Once inside the others looks around taking in the 52 foot high cube with lights, a generator in the guise of refrigeration. Looking around there was a system in place for sanitation, eating, sleeping and small storage area for their things. From what Erik had told them they would be transported by sea out of the country and then when they landed in china they would be taking a plane out into deep country Europe where there was a safe location for them to lay low while Erik's German contact would be looking into safe guarding any nuclear devices they could. If it could prevent Skynet and John from unleashing all hell now or within the next fifteen to twenty years. Erik would have to think of how to take on two different Terminator units or at least hold them off, from his understanding Kyle and Sarah had come from the future so they are looking at about that length of time unless John could get Skynet active now which he highly could doubt.

Computer and internet networking didn't start getting big for at least another four or five years as it was already 1997. Erik could buy them time, he would have to talk to the information criminal on the FBI's Top Ten List and he would have to do that after they landed in the Carpathians in what was fictionally known as Dracula's castle. Even with the nuclear warhead yield Erik remembered that the fallout hadn't hit them as in what could be considered bad. Sitting and reading Fin had already passed out taking the Gravol with her head on his lap, and the four other living beings looked on at a deck of cards that Erik had packed for the trip. The following next three days on the sea and their arrival in China was a god send to living compatriots as they learned to get their land legs back.

Erik thanked the smuggler and paid him extra for keeping them off the road as well as provide them with the flight out, being taken to the airstrip the group was huddled onto a transport plane used for smuggling operations and they were dropped off in Romania. From there they got into their won vehicles and with Daniel following Erik they drove to the Carpathians then deep into the wild woods to a cave system that was under what was thought to Bram Stoker's Dracula's Castle. Upon arrival Erik and the two other Terminators opened the stone blocked entrance and drove into their new base of operations that had boxes of supplies sitting there ready for them along with a suitcase with items that Erik had requested. Getting set up was easy and painless, everyone knew what they had to do and it was after everyone had gone to sleep that Erik opened the luggage and pulled out a suit bag, a cloth bag that held dress shoes, a hat bag, a thigh length woolen coat along with a shoulder harness and a Sig Sauer 226.

Changing into a black suit, a platinum grey shirt with a blood red tie he had to stop and listen for movement other than the two machines, when he heard that no one awoke he pulled on his dress shoes, holstered his gun under the suit jacket that he didn't bother buttoning up along with the wool coat and flipping the stiff collar. Taking the fedora out from its hat case Erik quickly fixed his hair and pulled the hat on and canted it to the left so he looked like one of those old gangsters. Going over to Daniel he stood close and whispered his orders to keep everyone say and to not leave the site. He would be back in a day or two once he finished with his job that he had to do, Daniel nodded as the hybrid turned and left the cave system taking the BMW car out back towards the city. His contact had told him that the man he was looking for was in town doing a deal, this man would one day have a TV character based off of him and it made Erik smile that he would be meeting reality's version of "Raymond Reddington", also known as "The Concierge of Crime."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: So, after 23 pages of tiny ass font I have the next chapter. This is for all those PMer's, those subs and so on. There are hints of Blacklist in here, there are elements of the T2 novel series, there are fun little things that make this story all around and this chapter is a single character one... well mostly.**

**Disclaimers are on an earlier chapter and they still stand, my characters are my own, stuff from others places belong those people, etc, etc, etc. If there are any really glaring errors I will look over this chapter when I'm not dead on my feet, and I will fix them. As all of you know my stories are posted raw so there is that and this is posted Raw cause lets face it I hate editing and I can never find someone to beta me so eh.**

**Have a good all of you and enjoy!**

**-Guardian**

* * *

It was a full six hour drive to the city that the man Erik was meeting, it was in Deva, Romania that Erik rolled to a stop outside a black market club; Erik had earlier on had to stop to wash the car before continuing on to keep up appearances and not look like he dragged himself out of a mountain dump. Getting out and pulling the fedora back on canted to the side he shut the door locking it and walked into an alley with the wind blowing his jacket open before going down a set of stairs and stopping at a metal door. Banging on the door Erik looked behind him as a slot opened and a pair of eyes met Erik's.

"Password?"

"Yosef Barron" The slider shut and the door opened admitting Erik into the club, Erik stopped look enough to get checked out and his weapon tagged and put into a safe like a coat check. Walking away and past the actual coat check Erik looked around looking for the man that he needed to talk to, an American former CIA officer that went dark after someone set him up and he left on the run with a photographic memory of all of the information, paperwork, and people he's ever been in contact with. The great thing about the man besides his photographic memory was his ability to charm, broker deals, sales and people to his side as he worked to get the people that set him up out of power. He learned a long time ago however that the people that did this was much too large for him and if Erik hadn't saved him the day that he did than the man would have done all his work for nothing and his empire would have fallen. Smiling Erik saw the man he was after as he sat watching a couple of girls dance for him while he smoked a stogie and had a glass of Whiskey in hand.

"Garret… Garret McKnight. I heard you were in town."

"Destler? Is that you?" the man in his three piece suit stood up after putting his cigar down held out a hand that Erik took and shook.

"It is, I need some information, tracking information of two people. Think you can do that without getting any of your guys killed and without getting killed yourself?"

"Straight to business it is then, nice clothes though." Erik laughed and looked to a waiter that had come up and handed Erik a glass of whiskey. Taking it Erik left a twenty with the woman who thanked him with a kiss on his cheek before she took off.

"Unfortunately it's a life and death situation on this end or I would be entertaining you with some stories." Garret sent the girls off as his body guard nodded to Erik before moving to secure the area for the two men to talk. Erik sat down and pulled his hat off setting it to the side before taking a sip of the alcoholic beverage.

"What's going on?" "Well, there are two people. One looks like a cop, California PD or something. Will talk like a cop but depending on the situation you are looking at maybe a well-spoken mannered man, or someone with cold dead eyes. The other wants to bring about the end of the world and I mean literally. He was able to get into things that he really shouldn't have and I've already talked to my German contacts they are looking to lock down on the Nuclear Warheads. I need to know about any large scale purchases of nuclear material, certain alloys and so on, if this guy cannot get his hands on the warheads either the codes or warheads themselves I can tell you this man will do what it takes to turn this planet into a nuclear dust ball."

"There were a couple of sales a few days ago that I've heard about. Electronics, high yield Colton Steel. I didn't think much of it and the names were always different. I know a couple of people that have died however during those last couple of days. I haven't personally dealt with whomever the buyer is but…"

"What's with the deal going down tonight?"

"Someone was looking for a seller of high end generators. I have a few kicking around from the war and very powerful but that's it. Why?" Erik sat back in his seat and looked around taking another drink from his glass.

"Do you mind if I stick around for the deal… I have a bad feeling about this and I want to make sure that you stay alive." Garret nodded and sat back watching what he would consider his friend after his life was saved, looking to his watch Garret was starting to get concerned. Erik had picked up his hat and put it back on canted again, a man in a suit with his jacket over his arm had walked up and was checked by Garret's bodyguard checked him. Erik lowered his head so that his face wasn't seen but he was observing as the man glanced at Erik before looking to Garret and holding out a hand.

"Nice to meet you Mr. Thomas."

"Nice to meet you Mr. McKnight, I hear you are the man that can get me anything I need or at least point me in the right direction of it."

"I am, I am. The generators that you have asked for are sitting outside of the city, all that needs to be discussed is the payment and the money transfer." Garret sat back down glancing at Erik seeing the man cock his head to the side listening carefully. Making his movements seem natural he knew then that Erik's suspicions were founded, whatever Erik was involved in he would need to talk to the man about it after he got out.

"Payment can be done via wire or by whatever means you would like I would be happy to offer you whatever amount you wish once I've seen the product." That was the warning bells going off as Erik stood up and moved to stand behind the man.

"Rule one about Garret McKnight, his word is law and his reputation is flawless, any man that knows the man would know that… General Connor." Erik's head came up from its leaned over position looking the man in the eyes when he turned, there was a dark smile on the man's face. "Garret…. Get out of here… now and disappear." Erik struck out grappling the new Terminator as Garret ducked around the two, he turned last second to see Erik get kicked through a wall with the man getting off the ground while people were screaming. Going over the man Garret saw the man's eyes glow red and a strange sound, kind like pistons being driven. Seeing the man get up without so much as a scratch Erik took the man by the arm and shoved him out of the way as Erik grappled with John again before picking the machine up and throwing it into a wall.

"What did I say? Run!" Erik pushed the man and his body guard out of the club as the machine got up and started for them. Erik was tossed his gun, and after chambering a round Erik put the entire magazine into John's head watching him drop to the ground before Erik pushed Garret into the car with the bodyguard up front with him and he drove off into the night. Taking his hat that was surprisingly still on his head and tossing it onto the dash Erik looked behind them to see if there was someone following them. Taking them out of the city Erik followed the bodyguard's directions and they ended up at a safe house that Erik pulled up to and parked. Garret was looking at Erik when they got out of the car, a gun was drawn on Erik by both the bodyguard and by Garret. Erik sighed and put his hands up before dropping them to his sides shaking his head, the two that had their weapons drawn on him.

"What the fuck was that about and tell me why I shouldn't just shoot you dead right now?"

"Because those things aren't going to do shit to me much like the rounds I put into that guy's head isn't going to do shit all to him either. Go head shoot me in the chest and watch as I remain standing, if you plan on shooting me in head, guess what… that's not going to help you either." Garret put his weapon down but the bodyguard cocked the hammer back as Erik turned to him and shot him in the chest. The bullet hit him and the armour plating under the flesh and muscle. So much for a pristine body any time soon, he'll had to let this heal naturally as Erik jammed his fingers into the wound pulling the deformed bullet out and holding it up to the bodyguard before showing it to Garret. It was covered in blood and there was no way that Erik could be wearing armour under the outfit he was wearing.

"What…. What are you?"

"What am I? Put the gun down… you took a good shot at me and I didn't even move so, put the gun away that pea shooter isn't going to do shit all to me." The man put the gun down as Erik dropped the misshaped round to the ground walking up to Garret, "I am hybrid of a machine and human; that man is was someone I knew a long time ago. He's a machine that I've never come across so I could die to him possibly, might even be out matched. What you and your compatriots have sold him basically are parts to ending the world." Pulling a handkerchief out from his coat Erik put the thing to the bullet hole that was bleeding and stinging in pain. Holding his hand to the wound Erik looked between the two as Garret ran a hand through his hair after putting his weapon away.

"Okay I've seen some weird shit, how do I know that you aren't on some sort of drug right now?" Erik moved his hand up Garret's ear, as the bodyguard came up but Garret stopped him with a wave of a hand.

"Listen…" Erik moved the hydraulics in his hand and arm in such a way that Garret's eyes widened, Erik pulled his arm back and went to the car after jamming the cloth into his chest more. Gripping the underside of the car Erik went into a squatting position before he lifted the front of the car onto its trunk tail with all four wheels off the ground.

"Holy… shit…" Erik gently placed the car back down and rocked it a little before looking at the two leaving Garret and his bodyguard in awe what they had just seen. It was a brutal and very surreal view of the world that he had just witnessed in a span of sixty seconds.

"Satisfied?" Moving back over to the two Erik glanced between the two men with a raised eyebrow as be pulled his suit jacket closed and buttoned it to hold the cloth in the wound to stop the bleeding. "I need you to keep an ear to the ground for the man that you just saw and attacked you, right now he's going to do whatever it takes to make sure that you end up dying by its hand. Whatever you have to do, stay alive and keep your eyes open for movement of nuclear material or instability of keeping nuclear material, weapons safe." Garret leaned against the car and put a hand to his eyes rubbing them, he was having difficulty understanding just exactly what was going on but at the same time he knew what Destler was talking about. He had seen plays and grabs for nuclear items as well as electronic and computer technology that was being smuggled out of DARPA. As a former agent of the United States he did whatever he could to ensure that no one could get their hands on it even going so far as to sabotaging the deals to ensure that the Federal Agents and departments had gotten the items and the people associated to the deals. There have been however a few deals that have gone south and the police and government agents hadn't been to make any arrests and he hadn't heard from any of the other contacts.

"And what are you going to do?"

"Going to do whatever it takes to ensure that a nuclear winter does not come to pass and to ensure that the world continues to live and I have two machines that I have figure out how to destroy ensure that more people don't die." Erik opened the driver's side door and looked for his hat and pulling out dusting it off and putting it back on his head. "Get in the car, and get out of his country, the faster the more of a lead that you have on John. I have to head back to my daughter and the others… we'll keep in touch." Erik turned and starting walking off down the road of the safe house when Garret called his name.

"Erik!" Erik turned and looked at the man who toss him a set of keys, looking at them and cocking his head to the side questioning the man, "There is another safe house with a SUV, take what you need and I'll get Midar to give you the location of the Generators, at this point they are better off safe in your hands than seen anywhere near me or my business." Erik nodded and turned away pocketing the keys and disappearing into the darkness leaving Garret and his bodyguard to go and sit on the porch of the safe house with their elbows on their knees and their heads hanging low.

* * *

Walking to the safe house took a couple of hours upon arrival there was a man sitting on the hood of a sedan and a metal suitcase sitting beside him. Erik walked up as the man got off the car and took the case with him meeting Erik a few steps from the car.

"Garret sends his regards, and the information and some that you required." Erik scanned the man overseeing the man's human skeleton, it was a very rarely used feature and it was used to determine if the subject was a machine or not, nodding Erik took in a deep breath and took the pre-offered case but before he could fully take it the man pulled Erik closer and he allowed the man to do so watching as the man had leaned in to whisper in Erik's ear. "You fuck my boss over and I'll fuck you over, I don't care what Garret says about you being strong and hard to kill. No one is hard to kill, all it takes is one well-placed bullet to the brain or the heart and you are dead." Erik turned his head and looked the man in the eyes allowing them to glow bright red in the darkness. The man let the case go and backed up. The man couldn't see any feature of Erik's face but the one thing that shouldn't have stood out was and the man backed up to the car as Erik took a step or two before he climbed into the car, started it and sped off into the night. Erik dimmed his eyes and allowed them to return to their blue hue before he went for the front door and pulled the keys.

Once inside Erik turned the lights on and pulled his hat off looking around, it was small and private and most of all it was safe or as McKnight had to it. Going to the small kitchen Erik put his hat down on the table along with the metal case before she shrugged out of his coat and unbuttoned the suit coat to see the cloth and the blood stained spot on his chest aimed for his lung. Shaking his head Erik pulled the jacket off and left the cloth he had jammed into the hole where it was and went in search of a first aid kit which he had found under the sink of the bathroom. Not bothering with taking off the shoulder holster or even taking the shirt off, Erik unbuttoned enough to open the shirt, pulled the cloth away and looked to see what the damage was. It wasn't too bad he would have to clean away the gun powder and residue left behind by the bullet and his body would do the rest.

Taking a cloth and shutting down the receptors around the bullet wound Erik cleaned and bandaged the wound before turning the receptors back on with a groan. Buttoning up his shirt Erik looked at the blood stained area and hole before cleaning up a bit of the shirt and walking out of the bathroom going back to the kitchen. Going to the case Erik opened it and pulled the paperwork out, the envelopes and the little tracking device that was installed into the case hidden under a fabric. Tossing the device onto the counter behind him Erik made himself some coffee and a can of soup before cleaning up his mess and sitting down at the table looking through the files that Garret had left for him. Half the files were of Government White Paper and paperwork drawn up by Garret or someone in his organization, Erik didn't care about those people he wanted to know about what was on the White Paper and what goods were being sold and moved by the Government itself. It seemed that it wasn't people with in the Government, there was always the connection to Cyberdyne Research and something called 'Genisys'.

Looking over the names on the paperwork it looked like it was all the same and a woman at that. Miles Dyson was mentioned as the head researcher on the project but there was a woman's name that kept cropping up as well as someone named Alex. Eating the soup Erik continued through the mess of papers and leaned back in his seat and looked around thinking about his daughter and the others at the camp. Pulling his wallet out Erik opened it and pulled an image of him and Fin on his back when she was a little girl. It had been a year or two after they had travelled back and someone had his camera and taken the picture of the two of them. The two looked at each other smiling brightly at the beach, smiling at the picture Erik rubbed a thumb over the image and set it beside the paperwork. Closing his eyes Erik pulled up the data from the CPU, it had everything about his inception, the rise of Skynet, the machines, all the dates. He looked through the information and there was nothing about anyone named Alex or even a project, looking further Erik looked into the information about time travel and Erik wondered if the Sarah and Kyle that are here were from a fractured Time-Line and thus the time line they were in is the original and real timeline and that the fall of the bombs would fall in next several months.

August 29th, 1997 was the date for the release of the bombs, and that would be in less than two months but that didn't make sense because the paperwork in front of him was dated the year before with funding going into the research and computer technology acquisition and the Cyberdyne research leading into something called Genisys. Where Erik was from, he certainly wasn't from the timeline of the bombs falling in 1997 and yet his internal data said otherwise, Erik lived well into the 2000's before he was taken and the bombs didn't fall until 2017. What was going on and why did his data no match up? Opening his eyes Erik brought a hand up to prop up the side of his face and he rested his elbow on the tabletop. This whole thing was entirely screwed up and this was why he didn't ever look into the Skynet files because there would always be something wrong with the information presented terms of history. All that Erik ever needed was the tactical data entries on the Terminators that could be sent back to kill him, John, Sarah and Fin. At this point he was scrambling to build data on the machine that took him on and almost kicked his ass.

Finishing his food Erik cleaned up and sat there with a refilled coffee mug and he went about organizing the paperwork before putting it the envelopes and cleaning up one last time. Putting his coats on and his hat Erik left the safe house locking up before putting the through the door mail slot and leaving with the information in hand. He left the SUV behind and walked back to the city and to his car that he had checked out for anything and left driving back to the cave systems. He had stopped off along the way to pick up a few small things and when he had arrived back the first thing that he felt went had gotten out of the car was a pair of arms wrapped around his torso and a sob.

"Dad!"

"Hey Fin." Erik wrapped his arms around his daughter and held her tight as he calmed her down, Daniel and Uncle Bob had walked up with guns in hand but lowered when they saw Erik. Daniel turned to see Sarah walked up looking at Erik and Fin before standing beside her own dad.

"Hey Erik, when you weren't here after she woke up she thought something happened to you."

"Well yes and no, I've had a hell of a night and morning, Daniel we'll need to talk about where you came from and the data you have on the war same with Bob because what found and what I actually remember is very, very unsettling to say the least." Daniel's head cocked to the side and looked at Erik with curiosity or as much of it as possible for a machine.

"Once you are settled and changed I would be more than willing to talk with you, did you find something that you shouldn't have?" Erik nodded and let go of Fin as the girl looked up at him, Erik leaned down and kissed her temple before reaching back into the car and pulling out the envelopes full of paperwork. Walking over to the younger Sarah, Erik handed her the paperwork.

"I think there are things in here are something that you are familiar with because I don't ever remember anything in my own past for that's in there or what will be coming up." Erik opened an arm up and Fin hugged herself against her dad and listened to his heart under his chest armour and flesh. She was clinging and especially so after she didn't see him around and Daniel had told her he had gone off to do some business.

"Come on little one, I need some new cloths and a shower." Erik and Fin headed into the living spaces leaving the others to stand around Sarah who walked to their long camp table and sat down opening the envelopes and pulling the papers out and looking through them one at a time with Daniel sitting beside her and Kyle walking up rubbing from his eyes the sleep he had his nap.

"Sarah?"

"Kyle…" Sarah had finished reading something that Erik had circled on the paperwork multiple times over and looked on in fear. There was no way that this was happening, Skynet had followed them this time, what they had tried to stop had actually followed them through time. Kyle took the papers and read them over set them down looking at Daniel before heads switched to Erik who looked more at home in his black military BDU's with the sleeves rolled up and his hair damp from his shower he had just taken.

"See something familiar Sarah?" The woman nodded and Kyle looked at Erik seeing hints of bruising around his face and along his hairline, Kyle put the paperwork and sat down looking to Sarah.

"We didn't change anything, we thought we did but we ended up here, this broken time… or is it broken?"

"I don't know Kyle, my personal memories are different than the data that I hold with in my CPU. It might be different than Daniels or Bob's. We have different memories maybe it's because there are so many fractured times now that it's now all starting to become or fragments are starting to work their way into this timeline. Maybe this timeline is the sturdiest of them all and Skynet has finally had enough." Erik moved to sit beside Kyle and looked across the table looking at Daniel and Sarah. Bob moved and to stand at the end of the table as young John showed up with Connor holding mugs of hot drinks in hand being handed out to others.

"We also have a problem, the General has shown up. I was attacked by him at the meeting I had attended and I was lucky to get away, how you managed to survive Daniel… I am impressed."

"We couldn't let him go, I couldn't let him go…" Sarah said as Daniel hugged Sarah, Erik smiled looking at the two. Kyle had finally learned that not all machines where of Skynet's programming and that the machines around him and Erik where the best line of defense. He realized now they had an 'army' but would it be enough to take on the three terminators now?

"We'll make sure, we survive this. We will make sure that we live through this and we will make this world better." Erik said putting a hand on Kyle's shoulder to relax the man. It was clear they had a bad run in with General Connor, but they one thing that Skynet didn't have and that was the fighting human spirit, adaptability, and they had one person that had more combat experience than Skynet had in its entire existence after being self-aware.

"We just need to take on a T-1000, whatever the General is and whatever embodiment that Alex is be it Skynet or not, we'll have just to work around those problems eh?" The group looked to Erik seeing hope in the man's eyes as he smiled trying to convey that it would be alright in the end.

* * *

While home base was now in the European mountains, the group heard from Erik's contacts about a white skinny brown haired man looking for them and they had placed its location in all London where Erik and the other's had been last seen. They had been using a safe house on loan to them by one of Erik's contacts when there had been a knock on their door. Bob had grown in terms of learning and because of John's verbal interference was clearly the younger of the two T-800's.

He looked through the eyepiece of the door and he turned in time to yell out T-1000 before the door was busted down laying Bob out flat on his back with the T-1000 warping its form to show its originally stolen clothing from the California Police officer. John had stood shock still before Connor came out from the kitchen with a shotgun in hand and firing at the T-1000 putting the thing off its balance before something or someone grabbed the machine while it was disorientated and taking it outside to a massive raised tank of some sort. It was on a massive concrete slab and it had erected protective walls, Erik had been able to drag the machine outside but was kicked away into a wall of concrete leaving an impact mark while Daniel having defeated a T-1000 before took an electrified heavy piece of metal and swung it at the T-1000 watching as the electrified metal started to wreak havoc on its body and its ability to shape change. Dropping the metal and going to the T-1000 Daniel with is hands and arms covered in protective gear picked up struggling T-1000 and went to the metal tank. Bob had been standing on the top of the massive tank and opened the heavy lid with the combined effort of the three Terminators and the Elder Connor they had all but thrown the T-1000 into the tank of acid and slammed the cover into place as Bob and Daniel sat side by side on the tank lid as they listened to the T-1000 thrashing about as it melted. Erik had moved away from his cratered seat and went to go and lay down on the concrete slab and close his eyes as Fin and John poked their heads out of the second story window looking at them.

"Are you guys alright?" Fin asked seeing her dad just lay on the slab and the two other Terminators just sitting there looking up at the teens. Erik raised his hand up from his face and gave a thumbs up before he allowed his hand to flop back down on the ground. He was getting too old for this shit and he didn't relish being kicked around and thrown around even if he was built to take punishment.

"Do you think the acid will be enough to take the General out?" Erik asked from his place on the ground there was still banging about in the tank, the heel of Daniel's boot hit the side of the tank before he spoke up making Erik laugh. "You! Quiet!" The noise died down and became softer and softer bangs on the inside of the metal and eventually it stopped with Daniel hopping off the tank and landing with a thud on the ground. Bob hopped off as well and the group started cleaning up and unhooking the electrified piece of metal from the mass of batteries they had hooked up to generator to get to the voltage level they needed. That was one of three problems that had ended until news reached them of someone looking for them in England and it wasn't a man but a woman and she had some mean bodyguards. Erik's search into who the woman was yielded something that he didn't think would possibly exist until he remembered experiments into breeding humans and implanting them with chips making for a new and different unit, now that Erik thought about it he was forced and subjected to various encounters in training what were they?

Erik had to search his data banks and it was Ultimately Daniel who reminded Erik to look into the I-950 Program. Erik had remembered the Human-Terminators was when he accessed those files that he remembered that he was at the time used as a test subject for sexual encounters of the I-950 women to see if they could pass for human and experience one of the more physical aspects of the human condition. He had remembered shortly after being forced into having sex with one particular I-950 woman that he had been uploaded with the data and then he had been rescued. Erik promptly wanted nothing more than to forget the encounters and that he had at one point been used as a sex slave for a sadistic machine. They had been lucky enough to onto a plane and in the air before a shootout had happened at the airport they had just left, they heard about it after they had landed in the United States to look into setting up a secondary location for a base of operations.

* * *

Landing back on North American soil Erik had it set up for them to be close to the Mexican border if they needed to go to South America where the Elder Sarah Connor had a set up for weapon stashes and safe houses. With a Ranch Style home and some livestock for their cover the group kept their ears to the ground and listened for anything that could from Skynet. Cyberdyne was currently working on a project that would revolutionize the world and as much as the Elder Connor wanted to go and take out Cyberdyne it wouldn't do well for them to just go in and do so. With different branches of the Timeline existing Erik's brain was starting to hurt as how three different Terminator had three different and yet similar data information along with Erik's Memories of his own past and Kyle Reese having episodes where his memories were being added to over the last several weeks they had been back State side.

"Sarah, how is Kyle doing?"

"I don't know, he's been able to keep water down and he said his head is no longer pounding like a jack hammer. He kept saying that in Erik needs to live, Erik needs to live, Erik needs to become a soldier…" Sarah looked up at the man who nodded and turned away walking out of the room that Sarah and Kyle shared, heading to Daniel who was plowing the field outside with Bob now named Richard. He called the machine over and stood with him as John having grown taller was working with his mom to sow seeds by hand along with Fin.

"I need you to look after Fin for a few while Daniel."

"What is troubling you Erik?"

"Skynet is after me, Kyle's memories… his visions see me dying. This is something that I need to do and I won't let any of you go after me, I shouldn't be gone long but I will keep in contact with you as best as I can. I have to return to Canada and that is going to be difficult enough as it is." Nodding the machine looked to Fin who was laughing with Connor and John, the machine really had been working up a sweat and was standing shirtless with jeans in sturdy work boots.

"I will look after your daughter. You go do what you need to ensure your survival Erik, and be aware of the I-950's if Skynet is still looking to activate Genisys here… we are going to have many years yet before technology is where it needs to be in order for Skynet to strike. I have seen the future and you humans have no idea the true capacity for evil and destruction you all have." Erik snorted and put his hands on his hips and dropped his head.

"Oh I know, we have no ability or desire to look after ourselves, it's nothing but greed… And it's sad how dangerous we are as a species… but some people in this world are worth fighting for, and I will not allow my daughter to go back to that dark place we came from. I will not let it happen." Daniel nodded in agreement before going back to finishing with the fields pulling the heavy chains tight and pulling the heavy farming device along. Erik stood long enough to watch Fin before he turned back and headed inside to go and pack his luggage for at least a week, if Kyle's memories were still altering as a side effect of the second time travel he would need to make sure that the version of himself in this time light wouldn't be killed off. Maybe it was a trap to get them all separated or maybe it was just a way to get Erik away from the group and take out the biggest threat, could it be that Erik would be a threat to Skynet, and if so why would it go after him as a child when he was from a fractured time line? Hearing a knock on the door frame of his room Erik put down the shirt he had folded to see Connor standing at her door frame and leaning on it before she had come in and shut the door behind her.

"You're leaving?"

"Temporarily to deal with a personal situation, it's not something that I can ignore." Connor nodded and walked over standing beside Erik, she looked up to him and watched the man cock his head to the side. The two had started to spend a bit more time together because Erik was aware of events of time but also because he was the only other person that Connor could talk to. Connor was still leery of the two other machines but Daniel was more in tune and protective of Sarah and Kyle while Richard spent a lot of time with John learning from the child as well as learning with what he read voraciously and was taught by Fin. The young teen girl actually had taught it school level subjects and taught it understanding through the use of plays and literature that the machine had actually chosen the name Richard for itself and had actually become very well spoken despite its slang pick up from John. The difference between Daniel and Richard was that Daniel had the age and physical experience of work and how the world worked through its fifty plus years protecting and watching over his Sarah. The time that Connor had seen the machine hug Sarah and even said 'My Sarah', it blew her away and Connor decided to spend more time with Erik as the only other near age human with life experience.

"And what if I said I didn't want you to leave?"

"Why would that be Connor? No one to talk to while I'm away?"

"Maybe, I don't want you throwing your life away unnecessarily." Erik turned at that and watched as the woman turned to face him chest to chest and nose to nose as he leaned his head down staring her in the eyes, a defiant look on her face and glowing in her eyes while anger was in his own. They stared each other down before Erik 'pushed' Sarah with his body until she was pressed up against the wall.

"My life is my own, and if it means protecting myself at an age where I cannot… I will and make sure that I turn into some semblance of the man I am now." Erik angled his head down close to Connor's who's breathing hitched before Erik turned away and went to his things and closing the luggage before turning to see Connor rush him and grabbing him back the back of his head and pulling him down into a hard kiss that he returned before pushing Connor away taking a harsh breath for himself. "I won't ask why you did that… but I ask you not to do it again."

"Why?"

"Because by the end of my mission… I'll have died. You don't want me." Erik picked up his luggage along with his coat and started for the door of his room when he felt Connor grab his wrist holding his coat.

"How do you know what I want and don't want?"

"Because you are looking for someone to take away the pain of the past, you want someone that isn't Kyle in the room down the hall and because you can't look at him without seeing your younger self with him and that hurts the most. You want someone that can take and handle that pain." Sarah let go of Erik and slapped him across the face which he took before she put a hand to her mouth and turned her back, Erik nodded and left the room and headed down the stairs picking up the keys to his car before leaving the house. Fin had seen Erik and ran over to him from the fields throwing her arms around him, Erik returned the hug and knelt down looking Fin in the eye as she looked down at him after he had put his things into the back of the car.

"I need to go for a while and do something, I'll be back in about a week or just over it."

"Daniel said it had to do with something about you, is it your younger self?" Erik nodded and gave a weak smile, Fin nodded and put her hands on Erik's shoulders before leaning down and kissing the top of her dad's head, "Go and protect little Erik. I'm sure he would be impressed to see the hero he could inspire to be one day." Erik grinned despite the pain in his face from where Connor had slapped him, in the bright light there was a red mark and Fin wisely said nothing about it after seeing how the elder Connor was trying to get closer to her dad, he must of said something to make her angry but at the same time Fin wished that the two would get it over with and just enter a relationship as weird as it would be. Erik stood and put a hand on Fin's shoulder giving it a squeeze before he opened the driver side door and got in closing it after, starting the engine Erik looked out the side and saw Daniel walked up putting an arm around Fin nodding to Erik. Erik gave a nod back and drove off the property and headed onto the highway heading north towards a place he hadn't been in a very, very long time… Home.

* * *

The long drive towards Canada had been somewhat easy on his brain and most of the time he had done it under auto-pilot while other areas his mind had been engaged with scenarios of what could possibly happen, and what he would need to defend against to ensure that the Erik Destler here would become himself one day. If the timeline he had come from was indeed now deleted and or fractured and pieces bled into the time line he was currently in, it would stand to reason that Skynet would look for a way to take him out early leaving just the deleted timeline Erik and it would be difficult for him to continue the fight knowing that he was already dead on some level.

As he drove through the border into Canada in silence while his brain worked out where would be at that moment, looking at the time Erik saw that it was coming up on 10:15 am, it was just about the end of the school year so that would put him about the Sports Day event and it would be a half day. Driving to the elementary school he had went to as a child Erik parked at the Rec Centre by the school and walked to the elementary school hearing the joys of screaming children and the clapping and cheers. Walking up to where there was a relay race happening with different coloured vests Erik didn't need to look for long before he spotted himself running full tilt with a smile on his face, his short hair breezing in the wind behind him. Looking into the crowd Erik spotted his mother and father who were all eyes on him with a camera in hand and smiles on their faces. Watching in tan cargo pants, brown military boots and a white-grey plaid cotton shirt Erik put his hands into his pockets and looked back to his younger self as he got closer to the finish line. There was a bright flash from the crowd and Erik heard the screams before people running, Erik watched in horror as there was an explosion in the crowd and Erik watched as his parents and other children's families were torn apart by the bomb.

Looking to young Destler stop and turn at hearing the explosion Erik sprinted for himself with his HUD activating looking for a machine or someone that would be out from whoever was left or in the tree line of the school. Seeing nothing Erik ran to the young boy and stopped him just as Erik saw a red dot that he stepped in front of before he wrapped his arms around the child who screamed. People began to scream again as Erik picked up the boy and ran into the school building. The hit came from behind and the bullet had planted into Erik's shoulder plate as he felt the pain before he decided to shut down the physical pain receptors he didn't need to deal with it at the moment he had an assassin he needed to take care of, but first he had to check his younger self over.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Who are you, where are my mom and dad, why are you kidnapping me? SOMEONE!"

"Hey, hey, hey!" Erik knelt down and scanned for injuries and was relieved when he didn't see any, it had to be the I-950 series that Daniel had mentioned, it also meant that it was a human man or woman and that would be a problem because Erik didn't know what to look for other than try and look for distinct mannerisms and that would be a problem in itself. Looking around Erik heard a door open from in front of him way down the hall, it was a man and a well built one but it looked like the man had a bit of a paunch on his midriff.

"Hey is everything okay here? Is that Erik Destler?" Erik did a scan and saw that it was a human man, but there was something about his gaze that put Erik off as he put the young boy behind him.

"No it isn't." "Mr. Tako, he's trying to kidnap me!"

"It's okay Erik, I'm here to make it better… your parents are looking for you Erik."

"Don't listen to him, he lies… your parents are dead… he killed them." The young boy looked out from behind Erik's back looking at the two men, the man that he was behind looked like his mom when she got pissed off at drivers. His teacher pulled off his glasses and dropped them to the ground before he reached under his shirt and pulled something from under throwing it at him before little Erik knew it the man that had taken him inside had stepped in front of him and snatched something out from the air almost like magic. Little Erik's eyes widened when the man dropped the item he caught to the ground with a clang, it was a throwing knife and a small one with a bit of blood on the blade and now the ground.

"You want the boy, you go through me and I can guarantee you that you will not get him."

"I will, and I will make sure that he dies, there is nothing to you can do to stop it because that little trick you did won't prevent me from completing my mission." The man put a hand on little Erik's chest to make sure that he was still behind him while his teacher seemed to suddenly drop about fifteen pounds with the fake fat that he had on under his shirt.

"The bathroom behind us… get into it and do not leave until I get you… got it?"

"But it's a girl's bathroom…"

"Just get into it." The man said and little Erik ran to it pushing the door open and looking at the man in time to see him raise his left up to protect his face from a high kick. He ran into it as he heard a thud against a wall, he closed his eyes and brought his hands to his ears as he hunkered in a corner with his knees brought up to his face.

* * *

Outside the bathroom Erik took the kick with his guard arm up and was surprised by the strength of the kick as it connected to his arm and moved it a fraction. Erik pushed the leg away and snapped a jab out to the face of his attacker followed by a rib shot both blows were blocked and they exchanged blows until Erik snap side kicked the man into the wall by the bathroom with a thud. It looked like the blow hurt but Erik was on the man who struck back out grabbing his wild haymaker and flipping him over his shoulder onto the ground with a resounding impacting thud and pulling the shoulder out of its socket and kicking the man in the gut watching him slight down the hall.

The man pushed himself back up to a stand with the one arm and he yanked on his arm putting the shoulder back into its socket before rushing him like a bull with his head down wrapping his arms around Erik's lower body when he connected hoping to pick him up what he didn't expect was Erik when he was picked up to have his legs out behind him and planting them down while dropping his arms down on the I-950's back. With his feet sliding to a halt Erik cocked his head to the side and with snarl he rose his arms up and dropped his closed fists down like sledgehammers onto the man's back hearing something break and the grip loosen on him. Taking that moment Erik grabbed the I-950's hair and rose his face up and pulled his right fist back and let it fly full hydraulic force shattering the I-950's jaw and cheek bone as blood sprayed from the thing's mouth. The head turned back to look at Erik a cold fire burned in those irises as Erik drove his left fist into the thing's side followed by the right fist coming in for an upper cut that was barely blocked, it struck out at him and Erik caught the arm and with a sudden grappling movement snapped the arm in three places.

The I-950 didn't even so much as grunt as it tried to kick out at Erik on for him to step back before he back spun kicked the I-950 into the wall stunning it before Erik grabbed the thing's head with both hands and dropping its head into his rising knee forcing the I-950's head to bounce against the wall and crumpling to the floor. Erik stepped back looking at the Infiltrator Unit and turned to see the door open a crack as little Erik's head poking out of the bathroom door with wide eyes before speaking up a little.

"Whoa…" Erik was breathing a little heavily before looking down to his knuckles and hands that were bright red, the I-950 shook it's dazed head and despite the heavy abusive damage it took, even with its jaw clearly broken and it's left eye slowly swelling shut it stood up and hunkered over starring at Erik and little Erik, the little guy's eyes widened almost comically at the situation, "No way…" Erik couldn't help but speak up at the little boy's surprise, he remembered when he was younger having a fascination with science fiction, robots, supernatural and superhuman abilities and magic. This must have looked like it have come out of a movie had it not been for the sirens in the distance closing in the school.

"Waaaay…" Erik said before the I-950 attacked Erik again, Erik grappled the thing and was surprised that there was still a lot of strength and power left, for a human bred machine it wasn't difficult to see why Skynet didn't have too many of these running around and what it did, it must have had some serious physical and chemical augmentation for it to take the beating that Erik gave it and still get up and just continue on like it was a T-800 unit. Gripping the I-950's hands Erik's servos in his hands crushed the hands of the I-950 before he let go and he really began wailing on the man/machine before him and by the time he was done he had snapped the neck and heard little Erik through his tears and whisper,

"I want my mom and dad…" Stepping away from the I-950 Erik turned to little Erik and knelt down by him as the boy came out of the bathroom sitting against the wall. "I'm sorry Erik…" Erik sat down next to him and leaned his head against the wall. He looked down to his younger self and looked up to see police, teachers, firefighters rush in. Erik looked to the side where the I-950 should have been and saw that there was nothing there. There should have been no way that it could have gotten up and little Erik saw where he was looking with wider eyes.

"Ho…. How?"

"Because there are some people in this world so evil that they can get back up and walk away." It wouldn't be over but the I-950 would think twice before coming back. Seeing the two sit beside each other and little Erik clinging to Erik looking around scared the little boy clung harder to Erik when the cops raised their guns to him as Erik lifted his hands up in a surrender.

"Let the boy go!"

"No! I'm staying with him! He saved my life!" Little Erik looked defiantly at the police wrapping his arms around his torso tightly. The police looked at Erik who were looking between the man and the boy they lowered their weapons as one of came over slowly and knelt down.

"Erik… did he really rescue you?" the man asked Erik looked at the name plate on the officer's and saw the name Richardson, the name was vaguely familiar to him before he remembered an incident in his youth that involved his parents but they were still alive at the time and it was never explained to him what had happened and it was an Officer Richardson that he had seen a lot in his youth almost looking after him.

"He did Jerry, he rescued me and stopped a knife from hitting me, and he caught it in his hand. Wait his hand!" Little Erik looked up to see Erik's bleeding hand and pulling it down before pulling a cloth out from his pocket, his tears dried up and he put pressure on the broken damaged skin. Erik was lucky that it didn't cut down to the machine when he caught the knife and it was the meaty palm of his hand, he remembered even as a young kid that he cared more about others than he did himself and it was surreal to see that he was helping himself without even knowing it.

"And the blood on the floor?"

"That would have been from me… I must have had something hit me and right now I can't feel a thing… must be all the adrenaline from keeping some creep away from this kid."

"Why did you save him and who are you?"

"I'm an old friend of the family, Military and Susan who is like a sister to me told me that Erik here wanted to see what a 'super hero' was. I told her the Military isn't a super hero, but I was told that she caught Erik pretending to be one and while the idea horrified her at first she grew to accept it, so I figured seeing as I'm on vacation I would come and see her and her family." Richardson nodded agreed with what Erik said and it must had been true cause little Erik ducked his head down with a blush crawling up his neck, "And today you got to see that super hero in action, not the best way to meet kiddo but it was something huh?" Erik nodded but didn't looked up at him or anyone else just kept pressure on hand. Erik switched his nerve receptors back and he had to bite back a groan of pain as his eyes closed, that shoulder hit from the gun was itchy and bleeding still, and his hand and knuckles ached a long with a few of his 'ribs'. He would be bruised later but that was the life of a soldier.

"Are Susan and Danny?"

"They are barely alive… they didn't take the initial portion of the blast and they were behind some bodies but there are fourteen dead. Thirty-six critically injured including his parents, we don't know if they will make it…"

"Mom and dad are alive?"

"For the time being they are." Erik looked up at the police officer as his shoulders started to shake, the Officer flagged down a paramedic to deal with Erik as Richardson moved to sit down beside little Erik wrapping his arms around the young boy as he cried in relief. With his hand looked at and said that he wouldn't need stitched he was pulled away from the wall and leaving the blood smear going down going down the wall. Erik had to move his body and grunted to add some noise to cover the sound of the hydraulic pistons. He was hauled up and taken along before being walked to a rolling bed that dropped an inch before little Erik got up off the ground and ran for Erik taking his uninjured hand.

"Can… can I go with him, if he's going to the hospital it means that he'll be going to the place where my parents are." Erik chuckled and grunted in pain before looking to the paramedic that had pulled his legs up and set him up for transport, he looked to the boy and was about to say no when Richardson came up and picked little Erik and set him up between Erik's legs as Erik was sitting up on the transport bed.

"I'm not that badly hurt… I'll look after him once I'm cleared by the people here." Nodding Richardson shooed off the Paramedics, it worked in Erik's favor to be able to continue to look after little Erik this way, now the next problem would be the fact that his body was a machine and if they decide to X-ray him… he'd be screwed. Once at the hospital Erik politely told the nurses that they could not have any record of him, or any imaging taken for the reason that he was a special operation soldier and command had told him that if he were to ever get hurt it would be the bare minimum. The nurses tried take him but after he had 'fake' documents from his wallet shown to them and the administration he was taken to a private room with a single nurse who had little Erik sitting nearby as she examined Erik's back saying that there was something in there but it didn't see any other damage. Asking if Erik needed any drugs Erik said no and that he'd deal, the nurse dug into his back and pulled out the misshapen round which apparently was rifle 5.56mm round. The nurse looked at him with shock before he said to her quietly as if keeping the secret.

"I was in an explosion three years ago, my shoulder blade and my shoulder joint are all metal… as is a very large portion of my body. It's why you can't x-ray me, or put me into an MRI machine. I'm literally a walking man made of metal." The nurses eyes bugged out as she put the round into a metal bowl and went about checking the wound for further injury before she cleaned it up stitched him together and bandaged the wound before pumping him full of antibiotics to be safe and a painkiller that his system was working on neutralizing because he needed to be at peak ability and it wouldn't do to have a fuzzy brain while looking after little Erik. Once he was cleared and little Erik was looked at quickly, Erik was let go and they went in search of any news about Susan and Danny Destler. Going to the ER with little Erik's hand in his larger one they stopped a nurse asking about the Destler's and told they were in surgery, nodding Erik took the boy and went in search of food, Erik needed something to eat and the little boy at his side need something to eat as well by the grumble he heard.

"How about some food huh?" The young boy looked up at him and sadly nodded, the next while would be rough on him and Erik had to do something go give the boy some hope. Going to a quiet spot in the Tim Horton's at the hospital with chilli's for each of them and an added sandwich for Erik they sat and ate quietly. Smiling Erik quickly came up with a story and cleaned his mouth looking at little Erik.

"How old are you Erik?" The boy looked up at him and put his spoon down using a bunched up napkin to clean his mouth, he looked down at the table and fidgeted with his drink before he spoke softly.

"I'm ten…"

"Ten? Wow, you know when I was your age I was about your height eh?" Little Erik looked up at him with surprised look on his face, "Oh yeah, I was small kid when I was your age. I wasn't very big either I didn't get bigger for I think about two years? Man, that was so ago for me, but I saw you run and you run fast." Little Erik smiled proudly at Erik.

"I'm number one, I'm the fastest runner on the track team!" Erik smiled at little Erik's excitement before he went back to eating his chili while Erik took a bite out of his sandwich. His shirt he was wearing was blood stained and he was getting weird looks from people but he didn't care and continued to eat. "

You know, you wanna know something Erik. You know where your parents got your name from?" Little Erik shook his head with the spoon firmly in his mouth, "Your parents named you after me, my name is Erik Matthew Destler like you. I have no relation to you even with my last name. Your dad and I share the last name but it was your mom that name you after me. You see I'm a very close friend to your mom, and she's like my sister but she doesn't know I'm here."

"I'm… I'm really named after you?"

"Yup, and my job is to protect people like you and take the bad guys out and away."

"Like Mr. Tako?"

"Mr. Tako was a bad man, he tried to hurt you and your parents."

"What do you do Erik?"

"Me?" Erik leaned in and looked around before whispering almost like telling little Erik a secret, "I'm a special kind of soldier. You know all the army guys you see on TV, or the movies and they wear all black and they have all those cool gadgets and stuff? That's me."

"Whoa!" Little Erik started chattering away asking him questions, asking him questions that only a young kid would ask and Erik answered half of them the other half he said were classified. As they finished their food and cleaned up they headed back to the waiting rooms and had sat down beside each other as they looked around seeing the loved ones of those hurt at the school. Erik gazed around while little Erik looked to his shoes and kicked his feet under his chair. After what seemed like forever to both Erik's a doctor in scrubs walked out looking around before calling out their last names. Erik stood up as the doctor turned to him as little Erik's eyes opened from the rather uncomfortable position he had taken while napping and saw a Doctor walking up to Erik putting a hand to the back of his head while trying to suppress a yawn.

Looking at the two that had stood in front of the doctor, the man dropped his hand offering a soft smile before he took a deep breath and started to speak, little Erik's eyes widened before he burst into tears and clung to the doctor thanking him for saving his parents. Erik listened to the injuries his parents suffered from the second and third degree burns to the lacerations and the concussions the two both had, they would live but it would be a long road for them for recovery. Erik thanked whatever gods were out that that his family had survived, the only problem now would be ensure little Erik's protection and make sure he follows the path of a Sailor. When the Doctor allowed them to go and see the family Erik let little Erik go in first and followed him in shutting the private room door behind him before he looked at the bandaged bodies of his parents. It had been over thirty or forty years since he last saw his parents before the fall of the bombs, they never lived through the nuclear explosions and it was difficult to see the two of them laying there having survived this bombing. Little Erik went to his mom first who was first and peered over the bed the two were clearly still sedated but the ten year old talk to her as if she was awake and shed a few tears before turning to his dad and doing the same thing. Erik stood by and watched before hearing the door knob turning and the face of the police officer showed himself and coming in.

"Hey, I heard that they couldn't do much for you and that you wouldn't let them."

"Sorry Special Operations Forces, I can't be seen medically anywhere and with the injuries I had endured over the years, I'd rather that no one but my own base doctors and physiotherapists know. No one needs to see what I've been through and what I've survived." The two men looked as little Erik sat in the seat between both beds and curled up in a ball, Erik went over and pulled a sheet off one of the empty beds and went over to the young boy and spread it over him running a hand over the boys head before turning back to the police officer.

"I'll look after him if you need to go…"

"Not yet..." Standing side by side, Richardson looked at Erik as the man looked over the two laying in the bed sadness in his blue irises. Richardson cleared his throat quietly before moving to step in front of Erik looking the man in the eye. "You don't have to lie to me… I know who you are Erik. You saved my life six years ago while I was in Oregon State, I was on my way camping when I pulled to the side of the road looking at my map and I was kidnapped. I remember being driven to California and through LA when the guy stopped to look at a guy in a suit taking notes. The man turned and was shot six times in the chest only to keep going picking the man up by the throat and throwing him into a concrete pillar and viciously attacked. I had never seen anyone do something like that, that man turned and heard noise coming from the car I was in because I was freaking out and I was gagged. I tried to get anyone's attention but your head snapped to me and you had come over buttoning up your suit jacket to cover up the blood. I saw it, I saw the fact that you should have died at least and you didn't." Erik canted his head to the side before lowering it, Richardson looked at him putting a hand on his shoulder giving it a squeeze. "I don't know how you are as you are… but I'm glad you saved him, I'm glad you came through for him."

"Who have you been talking to Richardson?"

"There was a cop that was saved in 1984, said something about machines and robots and crazy shit. He was around the circles and he's still in the force, a bit of an alcoholic but he's still working on the case that saved him. O'Brian I think his name was, only reason I know him is because strangely run into him after our encounter six years ago and he was the responding detective actually." Richardson brought a hand to the back of his head and scratched at it before dropping it to his side. Erik chuckled remembering a case he had been investigating at the time about some sexual scandal for the client he had been working with at the time. The cop that had questioned him certainly had the look of someone being crazy and zealous about his questions and Erik had to be careful when he had been brought in for questioning, he was lucky he had time to change his shirt after quickly bandaging himself up.

"I remember him, he questioned me and was checking me out, good man to have on your side I don't know how long his liver will hold out but… that's his health concern." Erik crossed his arms in the silence and Richardson heard the hydraulic servo move and whirr underneath Erik's skin and he had to look at the man before stepping back almost unintended.

"Wha… was that hydraulics?" Erik looked over and cocked his head to the side before standing back as he was with his arms over his chest looking at the little boy sleep in the chair.

"You should contact O'Brian… see what he can tell you in terms of what is going on, because in the next twenty years this is all going to change. Keep your head to the ground and listen for things that you wouldn't normally hear about and keep an eye on the news, it'll give you the biggest indicator of what's happening." Richardson looked at Erik quizzically but the man didn't say anything as he walked to the bed that had Susan Destler in it and he uncrossed his arms and leaned over gently placing his hands on the railing of the bed.

"Hey mom… didn't think I would ever see you again… whatever you hear… whatever you do. I need you to survive, I know you mom stubborn as all hell and I know you can hear me in that head of yours. Fight for your son, fight for me, because one day you will see the kind of man he will become and you will proud." Erik leaned over and kissed an un-bandaged area of his mother's cheek before he took her hand and gave it a soft squeeze before going over to his father. Standing before his father he gave the unconscious man a once over and saw that padding and damage done by the I-950 from the explosive device.

"Hey dad… had to take the brunt of it on your side to protect mom huh?" Erik kept his voice low as he leaned over and rested his forearms of the railing of the bed looking at the bandaged side of the man's face. Hanging his head Erik sighed and took his dad's hand in his own and held it before putting it back gently back down before leaning in towards his dad's ear. "I need you to come back from this dad, I need you to see the world that you and I thought about as a child, the dangerous of what is to come. You were right when watched those anime's and robots taking over, you were right about your theories. I also need you to see the man that your son will become because it is how we will win this war." Erik stood back up and stepped away from the beds and walked over to Richardson and held out a hand to the man.

"Erik Matthew Destler, Canadian Forces JTF2 Sailor."

"Officer James Richardson, Burnaby RCMP Division." Erik shook the man's hand and let go of it offering a small smile.

"I need you to stay here and keep an eye out for literally anything suspicious, this family is special as is the boy and you can see it. You've seen me in two different periods and I haven't really aged a day, you know that there is something more to this world than what is going at skin level. It is more than that you need to look beneath the skin, behind all the lies, behind all corruption and the people that run the government and the military. You've already heard with your own ears that I'm not exactly what I seem to be, but you need to keep an eye on what is out there because sometimes the human looking ones move like machines." Richardson looked at Erik as he headed for the door and put his hand on the door knob, he turned it before looking back and gazing at the man.

"They will talk human, behave almost human, bleed and gut like one, but they will take as much punishment as a machine. Hitting the limbs won't stop them, hitting vital areas that should take anyone down won't… damaged head traumas might slow them down. I don't know how to easily stop these but if you can do enough head damage you might be able to kill it, I don't know if a bullet to brain will help but it might not hurt. The first that I know of looks like a substitute teacher, the thing's name would be . I don't know how quickly the bastard would heal but the left side of his face should be shattered, I left a hell of a mark on him when I compacted his face and he still stood up. He HAD a dislocated shoulder however he fixed that himself, his back will be broken but it's not going to have the same sort of ability to feel pain like human's do. It won't show it, it has a complete mastery of its body and can go harder than anyone else I have ever seen in my life military included. I'm going to go out for a bit, but know that there are at least two, one that I can put a face to and the other is the one that shot me in the back, that one I need to find."

"Why are you telling me this? Why shouldn't I arrest you and have you committed?" Richardson asked with a half-smile Erik offered the younger man a crack of one before he opened the door took a step out of it before looking back one last time.

"Because you and I both know there is more to this world… that's why." Erik shut the door quietly behind him leaving his younger self with Richardson as he stalked down the halls his HUD was up scanning everyone from nurses to doctors to patients and their families. The other I-950 here he had to look for and among the routine scan he did he was looking for mannerisms that would indicative of a machine like behaviour as he walked out of the hospital. Erik needed to change and the car that he had parked was a good deal away but a taxi that was dropping someone off Erik had stopped and asked for the ride which was given to him. Once back at the car Erik had pulled his luggage out and changed his blood soaked and stained shirts for something clean after he wiped down as best as he could. In the distance was the school and the police surrounding the area, fire fighters and investigators doing their jobs after he closed up the car he looked around to the surrounding tree line and gazed about the thick trunks looking for a possible sniper spot that would have had the same kind of line of sight needed to get little Erik before he took the bullet.

Scanning the area and recording it a data file Erik went to the trees and started looking for spots where the rifle shot could have come from. It wasn't a very large forested area but it was large enough to conceal someone so it was a matter of maybe someone climbing a tree to take the shot, but from where the bullet had hit him and the angle of the shot it couldn't have come from height Erik didn't feel a downward pull of momentum when hit so it was a direct line of sight shot. Looking for those kind of spots Erik found one that he had to get down onto his belly for and pretend to hold a rifle. Once he was done he looked around and spotted an empty case, this was where the I-950 shot from so there were two for sure he just had to find it. Getting up and brushing himself off Erik left the area with the bullet in a corner of his shirt to help with keeping any evidence on the bullet, maybe they would be able to find finger print on the round and get a face to the name of the other I-950. Heading back to the car Erik put the round into a small baggy and headed back to the hospital, when he had arrived it had started to calm down some but it was still busy as he headed back to the room where he left little Erik and Richardson. Knocking on the door lightly Erik went into the room and saw Richardson sitting in a chair facing the beds and little Erik before he looked up from a magazine he had been reading.

"Hey."

"Hey, I have something for you that might help track one of the two that attacked the school and myself." Erik pulled the little plastic baggy that he had put the bullet in and set it down on the side table beside the officer. Richardson closed the magazine before standing up and leaning over to pick up the baggy.

"Where did you get this?"

"From a sniper perch about 150 metres out in the tree line. It was a direct shot and from a prone position. There was nothing else and I thoroughly checked the area, there is nothing left, no tracks or movements which is very impressive considering they left this behind." Richardson took the baggy and started for the door before turning back.

"Little guy woke up wondering where you were, I told him that you had to step out. I'll get this taken to someone that can get this looked at fast but it might be a day or two before I can get you a name. Canadian labs are slow here but you never know." Erik nodded and went to go and sit in the seat that Richardson had just left, sitting down in the still warm seat Erik looked at little Erik who was in a cot that the nurses had brought in and covered with a blanket his shoes at the foot of the cot. The reason that little Erik was even in the hospital in this situation was because none of his parents had any relatives that were alive. The grandparents had passed on early in his life that Erik could remember and it didn't leave him with a light of family. He didn't have any aunts or uncles as his parents were the only children and he didn't have any god parents so that left him alone.

Even growing up Erik didn't have any siblings and he spent a good portion of growing up days with friends or alone or bullied. Erik didn't finally change any of that until he was in early to mid-teens when his voice broke and he grew almost two feet, that's how small he had been as a child and when his growth spurt hit him, it hit him and he hurt. Not only with the growth spurt did he get to his six foot three height from four foot four but he filled out and be a lot more attractive to the ladies in school who wondered who the tall, dark (from vacation) and handsome was. The bullies very quickly relearned who Erik was when he stepped between a young scraggly, skinny freshman and Erik put one boy into a locker and he picked up the other one holding him against a wall for breaking the nose of the other boy. Erik was known then as the Guardian after he continued to step in between bullies and their victims. Erik was also exceptionally smart and he would spend his time tutoring and helping those that had problems. Despite being popular in so many regards including with his teachers he was not made Prom King or Valedictorian at graduation due to one particular bully having financial sway over the school and he would rub it into everyone's faces about it.

At the Dinner and dance the Prom Queen left the side of the bully and went to the table that Erik was sitting at and set the little crown she had been given and sat down on Erik's lap, but most didn't know was that Erik and the girl had been dating for three years quietly. The two had kissed at the table to the roar of proper applause of the entire graduation class and the staff that were there. The bully had tried to make a seen saying that she was his but the girl had tossed the crown to someone else that had been angry about not being made the queen and left the dinner with Erik. Erik remembered the girl because she eventually became his wife before passing away due to breast cancer that she fought for two years just short of their fifth wedding anniversary. Shaking his head Erik removed himself from the past and leaned his head back against the wall and thought about what he was going to do. His younger self would always be a target but if he himself could make a big enough of a stink with his current body maybe the I-950's could have to track him down and leave the younger Erik alone.

Listening to the beeping of the machines Erik scanned every nurse and doctor that had come in and watched and scanned for the drugs they were being given. It wasn't a problem until a female had come in asking that Erik leave. Erik refused and told the woman that he had been given permission to stay and take care of the boy. The woman kept telling him to leave and it was then that Erik new that this was the I-950 that had shot him. Rushing out of the seat and spinning the woman away and into a wall Erik had the woman's front to the wall as he scanned her and saw the chip implant with his scan before he tightened his grip and shut off physical sensory before spinning the I-950 around and putting a hand on the throat of the woman and squeezing it, the hydraulics pressed as the woman tried to pry him off even kicking him where it hurt with no luck. Little Erik was still in his deep sleep as Erik lifted the woman into the air as her legs went around his waist in an attempt to get him to loosen his grip, the grip she was exerting was impressive as Erik saw on his HUD the beginning of a tiny compression of his ribs.

Going to the window Erik was able to get the window open and with six story height they were at and the fact it was night time that Erik all but jumped out of the window with her keeping the I-950 on the bottom and within seconds they impacted the ground with the I-950 reduced to shattered limbs and bones as it gurgled it's dying breathes. They had cratered the ground and Erik let go of the woman and rolled off of her doing an internal scan with his eyes closed and the images and a percentage bar up. His hearing was at 200% to make sure that no one came up on the two of them. It turned out that the woman tried to stab him as he had a grip on her neck with the one hand. His back was now riddled with small stab wounds that his body was now working stop the bleeding and repair, the rib plates protecting his internal organs had creaked and were on the verge of bending but it was enough that they didn't. Sighing in relief Erik shut his HUD down and opened his eyes turning his head to the I-950 that was now actually dead.

Rolling to his front and getting up Erik pulled the folding knife that he in his pocket and opened it before grabbing the woman's body and dragged it into some bushes with a lot of cover. The side of the building that they had fallen off from wasn't a visited area so that would give some time to ensure he wouldn't be caught doing what he was about to do next, however it would be a massive pain in the ass to explain when he wanted to get back in the building and that was something he was not looking forwards to at all. Moving the sack of flesh that was now the I-950 Erik cut into the base of the skull, skinned the flesh and hair back before breaking into the skull itself. Erik was a Sailor and a Soldier, he took human biology throughout his high school years and into his university years before going military along with the human data files from Skynet, but that didn't mean he was a doctor or a surgeon and frankly Erik wanted to be out of place he was in before he was caught. Breaking the remains of the skull Erik dug into the remaining brain matter looking the CPU and power cell that I-950 had been implanted with. It wasn't just that Erik had found when he scanned the I-950, there was also another pouch like area within the I-950 that held other CPU's and power sources.

After removing the current CPU, Erik cut into the I-950's stomach and dug out the rest of the Skynet equipment and looked around. His hands were covered in blood and he had for all intents and purposes cut into a woman, cut her apart but not before he had crushed her in a fall from a six story drop. Looking around and noting that the hospital backed onto a small forested lot Erik folded the knife and looked around before taking his jacket off and made a bloody dark coloured bundle of gear that he made into a small makeshift shoulder pack and slung it over his head and shifted it around so it laid nicely along his back. Picking up the remains of the body Erik made a sprint for the trees and had no choice but to turn his HUD back on and look for a good place to dump the body. Finding a downed tree that looked like it was being eaten by the bugs and such Erik put the body and the head detached into the tree trunk and looked around. Erik had dropped out the back by the loading dock and he would be lucky if he could get in. The hospital had a perimeter fence and Erik wasn't sure if he wanted to climb that. He already had a dead woman's blood on his body and he looked like a mess. If he could make it to his car he might be able at the cleaning kit he had in the trunk. He just couldn't get seen and there inlay the challenge, edging around the trees Erik headed for the parking lot. It was night time so this could work for him but it might be a slight issue if people somehow see him covered in blood and he were to get questioned. Taking his time and using the cars for cover Erik made it to his car and opened the truck grabbing the first bottle of water he could see and cleaned his arms before a security guard came by looking at him and he raised a hand.

"You okay sir?"

"Yeah I had a bottle of cherry soda explode all over me and I'm just really sticky, it's actually disgusting."

"I know that feeling, just checking up on you sir, that's all." Erik nodded and breathed a sigh of relief before he dug into his luggage and washed down with wipes, water and travel cleaning things before he changed exceptionally fast into dark jeans, tank top and a leather jacket. Looking around Erik jammed the small pack he made of Skynet's things into a towel and back into the luggage before he locked up and headed back for the hospital and the room. That was one of the two I-950s down so now Erik had to hope that he there was just the male left. Little Erik had come out of the bathroom rubbing his eyes seeing Erik, the boy's eyes lit up before he went to Erik wrapping his arms around his middle, Erik wrapped his arms around the boy's shoulder's returning the hug.

"I thought you left me…"

"No, not this soon, I'm going to stay long enough for your parents to wake up, unfortunately if I can do not go back to my mission I could get into some big trouble." Erik looked into the boy's eyes and saw the happiness fade a bit before he left go the boy and knelt down looking little Erik in the eye, "I know it's not the ideal situation, but I want you to remember to be strong, I want you to remember that you will do whatever it takes to be a better person. Never let anyone get you down and look after others that can't. You have a great big heart and with that heart it will make you a great person. Who knows maybe you will be like one day, you'll be this cool super spy soldier, all you have to do is aim for it and you will be it." Little Erik's eyes hardened with determination, it was the same look that Erik gave others when they asked him what he was going to do when he had to go in on a mission. Smiling Erik put a hand on the top of little Erik's head and stood up. Maybe one day little Erik would remember this day when he looks in the mirror twenty five years from now.

"I want to be like you, I want to be as big and as strong as you."

"Atta boy, get back to sleep I'll be here all night." Seeing little him run off and climb back into the cot Erik stood by the beds of his parents and looked at them. The doctors and nurses said they might be waking up in the hours or the next day. Pulling his chair by the window Erik sat at the foot of his dad's bed and was facing the door resting his elbow on the elbow rest as he slouched a tag to rest the side of his face on his knuckles. Closing his eyes Erik allowed for his body to go into rest but he kept half-awake as he sat there to protect his family and himself. It was the next day about mid –afternoon that Erik woke back up without anyone threatening anyone's life, apparently Richardson had come back with a file left at Erik's side and taken little Erik for lunch. Stretching as much as he could for a machine Erik grabbed the sealed envelope that was tucked in at his side and opened pulling the papers out and blinking a couple of time to get the sleep out of his eyes. Reading the information before him Erik saw the hand written note left by Richardson telling him that he was going to take Erik to get some stuff for his parents, shower and eat before coming back. Looking over the bullet information it looked like this wasn't the first time this person was targeting people. There had been similar murders committed by the same person that was not in any sort of catalogue or the new FBI database they were developing for inter-continental law enforcement agencies.

Flipping through there were at least ten unsolved murders and the fingerprints were all the same on the cases, Erik should have taken a comparison print of the female I-950, but at this point he wasn't about to go back out to check the dead body, as far as Erik was concerned she was the shooter but the other part of him wanted to make sure, remembering that she had a needle that she was supposed to have used Erik got up and looked around and remembered the struggle and as small as it was there was the tray still left over from the night before that hadn't been moved on the table next the beds. Getting up Erik went over to it and looked it over and saw nothing to normal human vision, his HUD came up and switched to a scanning mode as he knelt down and looked around the rim of the metal tray. There was a print that his scan caught and it registered it to the image he had saved when looking at the finger prints. The comparison was made and highlighted, and it was a match and to Erik that was the best news that he had to give himself as he breathed a sigh of relief. Hearing a soft moan Erik stood up and looked to the bed that his mother and he smiled as he went over seeing that she was the first awake.

"Erik?" Was the first thing out of her mouth, Erik leaned over the railing taking the woman's had as her eyes opened and looked up to the man that was at her bed side. It was like a dream that the woman didn't think she could be living, as she looked at the man she saw something that shouldn't be possible and that was her dream actually come to life. "Erik?"

"Ma'am." The woman's hand shakily rose from its position that Erik took gently and gave a gently squeeze, she reached up even further that Erik lowered his face to her and she cupped the side of his face as he gave her a sad smile.

"When did you grow so old?"

"I didn't, the boy you remember is still here…"

"No, the dream… I saw you in a dream. My little boy all grown up and changed… all twisted." The woman held Erik's face as he leaned into her touch. "You were machine and man, I saw you hurt and changed… but… how are you here?"

"Time is a very funny thing, it can do things that we can never expect them to. I came back in time, I came from the future that nightmare you saw. Your little boy is still here, he's with Officer Richardson right now. You know dad was right about the science, bout some of the stuff we saw on tv and in movies. It's real and now it's a matter of making sure that there is a future where I'm not twisted into what I am now. I don't want that for him, but there are some things that I cannot change. Teach him to be strong, teach him to be a warrior. I know you mom and in about fifteen years you will look proudly to what your son does, because all you have to do is look to me." Erik stood up and looked down as his mother looked him over and saw his frame, his body and the strength he exulted. "One day your son will become me, and I'm still going here and being the best that I can be. That's all he could ever be and will ever be. Remember that. Love him, teach him, support him and everything else will follow and that's all that you can expect out of it all." Erik leaned down and kissed his mother on the cheek and she weakly pulled him into a hug.

"I love you."

"Love you too mom, it's been a very long time for me since I've last seen you, you live and you survive." The smile she gave Erik was worth her going back to sleep afterwards, Erik set his mother's hand down and went to his dad giving the man a shaky smile. It had been a very long time since he talked to his dad and when he saw his dad awaken in pain Erik ended up getting a nurse who came in to check on him before leaving the two alone. It was a very brief talk before the man went to bed but Erik was able to tell his dad who he was much to the man's surprise that his theories were all correct and that he needed to be hyper aware of everything around his family. The man fell asleep just a few minutes before little Erik came bustling in with a backpack and some things, Erik had been looking over an article before he saw a civilian looking Richardson come in after little Erik. Nodding to the man Erik put the magazine away and stood up. Little Erik hugged his middle again before going to his little cot and setting his bag down on it and going to check on his mom and dad. Erik went to Richardson handing him the envelope back and patting the man on the chest lightly, Richardson looked at him questioningly before Erik stood at the man's side looking at little Erik with a sad smile.

"Take care of him and his family will you…" Richardson nodded as Erik turned to leave, he had an I-950 that he had to track down and finish putting down like the monster it was. Leaving the room quietly Erik was in the elevator before little Erik skidded out of the room in to the hall to see his hero disappear behind the doors with Richardson at his side a hand on his shoulder. Richardson had led little Erik back into the room as the little boy sadly sat on the cot between his parents, opening the envelop Richardson pulled out papers which included a drawing and a note for little Erik and a note for him.

_James,_

_When you read this know that I left Erik in your hands while my parents are recovering, it's important to know that there is danger on the horizon and that there is only so much that I can do and so many places that I can be at at the same time. _ _My past and Erik's future is linked to you strongly, so I give you these words of advice. Look out for the Destler's, they will need it and you will be the role model that Erik will need. My father has a bit of a wild mind but for all the wild ideas he has, he is not the kind of role model that Erik needs. _

_I have talked to my father and he has agreed to have you as the boy's god father. It's more than I ever had growing up, know that when I was younger I looked to you for your strength, and when I had my growth spurt it was you that helped me adjust to the changes and it was you that helped me get the ladies._ _As you can tell, I have gone and that is to track down the man that I had fought in the hallway of the school, the woman who had all those unsolved murders, she's dead. If you must really look for a body it's in the trees but for your sake do not look for it I know as a man of law that you much report crimes, but this is one crime you cannot report for that body isn't entirely human, let it go. _

_I told little Erik that I would stay at the hospital for as long as it took for my parents to wake and they did, I must continue my mission and as such you are to take over for me there. Soon little Erik will forget about me, but in order to help him overcome that there is a little note and that drawing that I did. _ _Thank you for everything James,_

_Erik Destler (From 2029)_

Richardson folded the letter and put it into his wallet for safe keeping, looking at the picture that Erik had drawn it was of a Wolf hunkered low and looking up ready to defend with an aggressive looking Dragon ready to back the Wolf up with smoke coming out of its maw. The caption that Erik written onto the little note attached to the pen drawn image read _Even the smallest alone, you will always have something powerful behind you to help._ Looking to little Erik, Richardson smiled as he held out the image to Erik who looked at the drawing in awe and carefully touched the lines. He would do as Erik said, and in order to do some of that he would need the help of others including that one police officer from LA.

* * *

Sitting in the vehicle Erik had since driven away thinking about how he was going to track down the I-950, the city he was in was connected to so many other smaller cities that where in walking distance. For him Erik would probably have to go to the school to track down the address of the teacher. If it was a sub or a permanent teacher the information would be needed from the school district board office. Waiting until it was about just after midnight Erik went to the office building and got out of the car Erik went to the building and looked around seeing if there was a way in for him that didn't involve setting off the alarms. Going around he saw a cleaning truck and a door propped open, going over to it Erik pulled the door open and poked his head in hearing Spanish voices down the hall. Stepping into the hall Erik went down it and looked for a records office while trying to keep away from the floor polisher and the woman that was cleaning the bathrooms.

Finding a room that had rows of filing cabinets Erik went in and shut the door quietly behind him and started looking for something that could help him. It was times like that that Erik really missed the joy of the internet, computer databases instead of paper searching for someone. This was going to be rough and it was going to be something he was going enjoy mental sarcasm included. As Erik looked through the filing cabinets an hour or two later he found the information he was after and wrote down the address to a Mr. Tako. Leaving the building was a challenge and Erik almost got caught by the cleaning people as he brushed out the door.

Sitting in the car Erik looked at the address again and pulled out a map looking for the street he was looking for again wishing for technology to catch up because then he could pin point the location he was after. Driving to the address was making Erik aggravated to the point that it almost drove by the house that the I-950 had been using for a base of operations. The lights were off except the one that was coming from the basement window, exploring the property Erik knelt by the basement window and little in seeing the I-950 that he had beaten the ever living daylights out of in a bathtub with an T-800 taking care of it. Erik pushed himself to a stand and turned around seeing a T-800 slammed him into the side the house before being let go. Rolling over and getting up Erik was picked up and thrown into the back yard breaking a wall to the shed that stood strangely by a in ground pool.

Shaking his head Erik gazed at the ground from his place on the debris of the shed wall before he was whipped up into the air and slammed into the grass side first creating a crater. Climbing out of the crater Erik dove out of the way of the T-800 before booting it in the face knocking it to the ground. Standing back up Erik ducked his head back barely missing a swing of the machine before he cracked it across the face watching the head snap to the side almost strain from the hit. Erik realized then that even though it was a T-800 the machine components and materials must have been cheaper meaning less durable. Erik turned his pain his receptors off and ducked under a swing and slam his fist into the chest of the machine and grinned with satisfaction as he heard the metal squeal and crumple under the hit. Erik struck again with a hay maker and watched as the machine much like a human dropped to its as the CPU and the power source were disconnected and the head hung at a very wrong angle. Grabbing at the head Erik in a very brutal fashion tore the head off the machine skin included and kicked the now useless body onto its side before dropping the head and heading for the basement door entrance and kicked the door open to see the I-950 clearly out of it and the T-800 that was taking care of it turn only to see the axe that Erik had picked up from the door connect with its neck twice before it shut down and it's head rolled to the ground.

Dropping the axe Erik looked around for something that could help with what he was going to do next, it took a few minutes before Erik had his set up done and he sat on a wooden chair with a toaster in hand plugged into a wall socket and the out of it I-950 chained up in its tub. Sitting there Erik had filled the tub with water and sat there waiting for the I-950 to awaken, interrogating a machine of Skynet even with a human body would be new because no one had ever done it and Erik was always one for learning new things as he stuck his hand in the cold water having since returned his human sense of touch back and he felt the bruises on top of the minor injuries he had from the other I-950 and from the fight with the I-950 that looked worse even with its induced healing. Nothing was worse than an impact from a hydraulic fist t the face to shatter bone into tiny pieces. For the first couple of hours Erik sat there waiting, when he soon realized that the I-950 wouldn't be waking up any time soon Erik went outside to bring in the body of the T-800 and the head and looking over the construction of the machine after peeling the skin off and putting it into a garbage can at his side. Looking at the crude looking skull that was under Daniel's or Richard's face back home.

Looking over the rest of the skeleton it was clear that the I-950 hadn't been here long enough to secure better quality of metal or hydraulic hosing for the pumps and rods that acted as muscles in his own skeleton or the T-800's from the future, there were custom made but cheap. These T-800's were made strictly for help and for back up but they had weak points that Erik had already exploited in two fights with the machines. It took two days and the smell of the now dead skin of the T-800's to be a bother to Erik's sense of smell, however all it took for the time being would be many, many air fresheners and candles to mask the smell when the I-950 finally stirred and when it's single eye opened it stared back at Erik who cocked his head to the side.

"You and I are going to have a chat before I try something from a game I used to play when I was younger. Don't bother trying to move or break the chains. I was smart and I used some of the heavy grade crap you bought to eh hoist up the bodies of the T-800's you started to make."

"You, Skynet should have destroyed you after my sisters fucked you to moon and back."

"Well, well. Looks like you have a temper don't you?" The I-950 tried in vain to move as Erik chuckled listening to the heavy gauge chain move in the frigid cold water, looking to the toaster that was at his side along with the orange power cord the I-950 looked in the direction of the toaster as well and saw what it was plugged into.

"My files say that you wouldn't kill a human being, Erik Destler is a saviour not a murderer."

"Your files aren't wrong, but you aren't human… Hell you aren't innocent after you tried to killed myself, that being said I gotta ask you how many of you bastards did Skynet send back?"

"Like I would tell you?"

"You know your chances of surviving are at zero percent right?" The I-950 stayed quiet looking at Erik like he wanted to the hybrid to explode into fire. Erik laughed and flipped the switch on the toaster knowing that he wouldn't get anything further from the Skynet bred human. Picking it up Erik held it with one hand and dropped it into the tub on and watched as the high voltage of electricity shot through the I-950's body the water and the close contact of the metal chains started to roil the water as the eyes of the I-950 couldn't shut and Erik turned his face away in time as the eyeballs exploded.

Walking away Erik left the house and got into the car and drove away, on his way out the power cells of the T-800 in the belly of the I-950 exploded taking the house and destroying anything of the Terminators, Skynet along with an entire row of houses after a gas main had been breached. Driving on Erik didn't care that destruction had been made, but he hoped that any other I-950's that had been sent back would be targeting him as the immediate threat.

* * *

At Cyberdyne Systems a woman had been writing up some paperwork when her attention was brought to something as he head cocked to the side.

_"Yes number seven."_

_"We have lost contact with Gregory and Sanella, last transmissions were that of the Hybrid Erik Destler attacking them."_

Serena Burns looked away from the paperwork she had been writing as the connection to her Number Seven T-800 she had hand crafted along with its 'brothers'. Putting the pen down Serena remembered the hybrid well and used the hybrid for her own education amongst other things including her own sexual pleasure when Skynet allowed her to.

_"Track him down, I want to him brought to me and unharmed. I should like one last rodeo with him before I rip his heart out."_

_"Acknowledged."_

The connection was cut and Serena looked out the window of her office, Skynet was being secured with the help of John Connor a Terminator created by the hand of Skynet. It would take years but it would be a war that Skynet would win this time no matter the hybrid and the others that had come here.


End file.
